We are not plants

Vivienne Glance

We cannot hang like xerophytes drinking air

cannot share the oceans lick as Spinifex can

nor curl up like moss, as near to death as is possible,

until rain unfurls on the ground to resurrect us.

We cannot know water as intimately as plants,

with still attention listen for lifes source,

follow and fill our cells, as they do, with solutions.

We cannot unlock that unheard cry from the parched tongue of the child,

an empty mtungi on her head,

the man fishing in the polluted canal,

or the flood of humanity from ancient lakes to plastic bottles in border tents.

We understand beginnings are liquid,

so we seek water on Europa and Mars,

but we must also quest to know this Earth,

root down into our unknown rocks soar to our clouds

redefine our future sown in this one drop that sustains life.

What is the solution in the cells of our minds?

We see water as our mute slave but when there is no more

dew on moss, nor clouds in the sky

when our taps creak open but nothing flows -

will we work together or fight others to survive?

Our minds will hold no solution if we fill our mouths with water

but neglect to irrigate the desert of our hearts.

We are not plants.

But like them we stitch our souls with listening roots,

sense water as the blood of the earth

slip past membranes of separating hate and hurt

resurrect our desiccated hope with the solution of ourselves

and with still attention, like plants in soil,

hear the flow of water within us all.

Header photo: Water and ferns. Viv Glance