Hold on to Earth
Even one handful of dirt
Feel curves of your foot’s arch
graft onto minute slopes of soil and say
today this is my prayer
Holding on to wonder
Wrap arms around it as if a tree
whose roots mirror its crown
knowing if you stand up for this tree
with all your being
each leaf will unfold toward the sun
then flaring rust fall to feed hungry ground
that branches will offer relief
not just as a museum for birdsong
but as a beginning born in the source of light
Christine Cock
Christine Cock lives in the woods of Florida with her husband and Catahoula leopard dogs. She worked in zoo management and in conservation for many years. She received her BA in Creative Writing from Eckerd College where she won the Writing Excellence Award. Her poems has appeared most recently in the Sandhill Review, Kissing Dynamite, Quail Bell, The Speckled Trout, Red Eft Review among others. She has been in the anthologies By the Light of the Neon Moon, and And the Rocks Shall Hum. Her work has supported conservation issues when on exhibit at the Florida Museum of Natural History and when it appeared in Screams of Silence it benefited victims of domestic violence.
