once upon a time there was a poet / who loved
a great lake very much

this poet lived in a time of trouble
of violence and climate crisis / pandemic
and estrangement / diversion and drought

and it came to be / that the lake
they so loved / was drying and dying

the poet would sleep / each night in the lake’s
ancient bed / along the foothills of mountains
shaped by waves lapping / while sleeping
would dream of water

clouds and ice / snowfall and rain / so much good
water / cascading down high alpine streams / pouring
down canyons and dells / making rivers / coursing
the landscape / and sinking down into the
great aquifer deep underground / drawn by
the great weight of the world

while dreaming / could hear / this fresh and clear
water / flowing towards the great saline center of the
great desert valley / filling the great beating heart
of the great basin bioregion

basin as in bowl / as in refuge / as in lifeblood pulsing
as in migration / as in millions and millions of birds
traveling / as in irreplaceable / as in home

the alive earth sings / the alive earth sings / the alive
earth sings / and meanwhile the machinery clamors on

distracted by the din of their own making / the villagers
had not been listening / continued ignoring
every stark warning / from elders and evidence
from weather and wind / did not comprehend
the peril we were in

habitat eradicate / water body desiccate / toxic
dust obliterate all that remains of breathable air

interdependent / our poet knew this moment
called for another kind of attention / when the life
of someone you love is at stake / you stay with them
even if it’s too late / even if it’s not enough

slow down / steady now

time to keep vigil and be with our beloved pi’a-pa
great water / great salt lake / mother / ancestor / friend

time to relearn again and again how to listen
bear witness / stay with and not look away / remember
that we can still touch those within reach / we can still
taste the great waters / and when the poet arrived
at the water’s edge / the shallows would swell to greet them

the poet is here at all times / the here is now in all
places the poet is not alone in this / voices becoming a chorus

tracing the shoreline they sing with the sea / stars
burning in their eyes / feathers sprouting from their skin
a living bison in their belly / salt underfoot and miles
upon miles of animated planet

saturation / satiation / restoration
healthy and heavy and whole

there is warmth within their chest / a great heart
that goes on humming through the long nights
and a bone-deep knowing / growing

out in the big wide open

once upon a time there was a poet / who loved
a great lake very much

you know some say the poet never left
our beloved / mother / ancestor / friend

still sleeps each night / in her soft salty bed
surrounded by great waters waving

while sleeping / keeps dreaming
keeps singing the dream into being

…