What I Am Hungry For

I've been silent for two years, getting EARTH & EROS ready for publication (it's coming out in October from White Cloud Press!) but this spilled out in a writing workshop yesterday.

When the belly softens, I hear it grumble

and instead of reaching for chocolate

I ask what it actually hungers for.

A circle of hands, arms, eyes to witness and support

lives of imagination and courage.

An Arctic safe for polar bears, wolves, seals,

and the caribou migration.

Cities filled with the swish of bicycles and the soft padding of feet,

not a car to be seen anywhere.

The bees and butterflies returning to fields of crops

grown without Roundup or the neonicotinoids that Bayer claims are safe.

Children who have been read stories

and nourished at the family dinner table

and not slaved to cell phones and computers.

Neighbors who would rather pass the time on porches and picking

fruit from the community orchard together

than disappear into the house and never come out.

Friends who are eager to meet at sidewalk cafes

to pass an afternoon or an evening

without having to check calendars and schedule weeks in advance.

Work that uses our deepest talents

for the good of all.

A collective recognition of the insanity of that glaring yellow behemoth

parked in Seattle’s harbor yelling Royal Dutch Shell.

An end to all wars.

These are the true hungers of the belly

of the Western woman

who the Dalai Lama says will save the world.