Here in a Circle

here there is a circle
there are elders
dressed in leather jackets
beards of age
scarves woven of thought
glasses of a heart’s insight
there are youth of age
youth of many means
youth plugged into universes outside
thoughts
breaths
held hands
spanks
blessings
curses
garbage
expensive water
free air
all in a circle
a circle of survival
of surviving sustainability
songs sung silently
as breaths nod understanding
and legs switch to thought
and computers turn off
so that ears may calculate.
I sit and my heart
writes and my eyes draw-
rain batters the outside
so that cold grey
seeps through
ways
yet my stomach is warm
yet my friends’ stomachs are warm
yet my elders’ stomachs are warm
so that their words singe the air
with sage and tabaco and
forest grown veggies
feeding the circle
feeding the circle
feeding the earth-
in my thoughts I can run
in my heart I can sleep
in my stomach I can read
if my art is my love
then my love is the earth’s
soul,
for we aren’t human beings
simply
beings attempting humanity
stepping on broken sharp branches
flooding brown meadows
burning ink of the ground-
a lesson to be learned
hides in the balance of the fires
and stars and moons and seas
not to mention
all the beings.