Poetry

Interconnected

Cyanotypes on cotton fabric, made on the beach in June

On the beach making prints out of the treasures
washed ashore and the sun with the moon reflecting that light
pulling the tides I think of the fabric how it once
was balls of cotton planted by human hands
grown from a seed in soil that might have once
been an inland sea little plants blessed by the sun
green leaves kissing the air of the field
with oxygen maybe it was once
covered by thick ice now melted the water re-entering
the cycle returning to the clouds becoming
slush that flowed into rivers the rivers reaching
rushing always for the sea becoming
steam rising falling again as rain returning
to the sea the sea that nourished the clams
the fish that fed the gulls and pelicans
who dropped feathers onto the sand into the surf
the sand that sheltered the crabs the sea whose salt
waters washed the fabric held by my hands
hung up to dry in the same sun that made
the print that evaporates the water returning
it to the sky and then to the earth to nourish
the soil to grow the cotton all over again