All Mothers are Boats
-For Herbie Kearney
i.
Yes, and we stood four mothers
In each direction tending the fire on the levee
Enclosed by stones set heavy
By one who loves you & gathered
Us to say good bye, howling
To the skies, rent by time
You flew from us, twenty seven minutes, she says
While she waited down the hall, machines silencing
Angel number of compassion, “for god damn
Humanity” you’d say, is what it burns down to
Our hearts flung open by breaking
The measure of any line is who is listening
Benevolent light you called them, as they danced
Near you, ejected from the sensory deprivation tank
You built - “a failed experiment” —naked and trembling, babe
Trying in one life to give birth continuously, and to know
It is the work that matters
That the work will get done
ii.
the shores we arrive upon are always strange
yet feel familiar, edge of water to land
beyond death you speak, let go of hope & hold
on to faith—this ship of the dead
you gifted us, oh, we have gathered there for years
& said good bye to love that leaves too soon, & now, now
dreamer— we sing for you
shorn of suffering new born
the truth that even temporary the spark created here shifts
the whole plane of manifested life
the work we do alone is us
& trembles through the universe
& none of us, none of us leave
this threading
without shaping the whole net
