That the conditions of life so conspired to birth us is a miracle.
That we are here at all is a mystery.
That our lives are brief and unknowable - a gift.

A time may come when our hearts will dry in ever ending thirst.
Without a home, we’ll grow isolated
Islands among each other.
Without the great Salt Lake
We cannot know who we are,
Only that we won’t last long.

Among life’s wild uncertainties,
there is a place where
Our hearts pool into a still reverence of salinity,
A momentary ripple of love cast through an unknown.

Note from the poet: Salt Lake City is home, and the Great Salt Lake is what makes it so. I had been expatriated from my first home due to environmental and political disagreement among its people. My hope is that we can value our right to exist peacefully above all else, and see to it that we do.