My Beloved

My Beloved

Be my salvation,
oh, mother earth

Caress me with leaves brushing my face
and ferns tickling my feet

My best friend and my one true love,
you have given me more than I can return

I merely sit on your plane
like the blooming foliage that skims the surface of a motionless pond

You flow like foamy rivers into lakes,
you are still like marshes and swamps

Loud like the cry of the kingfisher
or the lullaby of frogs on spring nights

You have given me the winds and the rain that blow by me,
and the deer that cross me in the forest with their young,
wobbly and spotted in the spring

I cannot return these gifts to you
so I shall return myself one day
so that I may become as we were meant to be

the soil beneath your skin.

Author: Katherine Baker
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Photo: Parker Johnson on Unsplash