birth –

who are you to say when we are to stop?

how do you know these things?

it is a world blown clean

from the elder's lips, breathing through

the coal in his mouth to form

rivers, valleys, lakes filled with sudden life, the

surging of fish, the

startle of birds on the wing -- We are

the new inhabitants of

this land, carving out for ourselves

a covenant

with the earth which produces Us -- unstable

on fresh legs

delivered from the Womb we recognize in

each other our intimate

Selves just brought into being -- it is here,

newly born

we encounter our virgin truth --

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