The People of The Valley

 

There were days

when life came

like water in a swollen river.

Breaking her banks

and flooding out the valley.

Cold and unrelenting

in her abundance,

reminding us

that we are never ready

or prepared

for all that life can bring.

Then, there were the desert days.

Long months, and years

of nothing in us.

No spark, no welling up of virility,

just dry, dusty streets,

filled with others,

who like us, were seeking signs

of life.

We survived both of these.

Extremes to set the boundaries

of our existence.

Feast and famine

in the wide valley

of our experience.

The floods made the soil rich.

The drought made some things stronger.

We have woken up

alive

despite the world’s best attempts

to dislodge us.

Destroy us.

We have learned, painfully

the ways of the flood plain.

We have become

the long grasses,

and the fruit trees,

and the grape vines.

We breathe the air,

but it is by the river and the rain

that we survive.

From shoots of green,

poking out of the mud,

to a hollow tree,

standing in a parched field.

This is us.

We are

the People of The Valley.

 

 

DJR – 2023

Leave a Reply