Equilibrium Envy Tuesday April 12, 2005 (posted) Written deep in the woods of Appalachia, mid-2004 [a poem written in the woods along the Appalachian Trail somewhere after a jolting town supply run in which I saw news of the first of the new trend of war-instigated beheadings] Starlife and night In all of this Footpath of stone and sand and mud Framed in purple iris and ghostly-white Indian pipe. I telescoped a million times down from curious worlds above Lain here, stretched out on sacred ground, That indescribable sweet scent of soil. Earth. God shed His grace on thee And the mother wails in Iraq "Why?" And the Michigan soldier's mother wails "Why?" And terror lands on us like bird shit from the sky And I ask "Why?" Yet these trees will not answer, And the cicadas have gone deathly still. This Earth will not entertain my question Or yours. Just try. Scream your WHY far out across a wide vista Yank the hanging kudzu vines; shake the canopy for answers! Or curl up in Keffer's oaken limbs three centuries old and cry awhile. Dammit! Just when I was beginning to heal again! All this oxygenated air exhaled by trees that know no sadness Streams that sing one to sleep at night And the simplicity of the mission: Walk north, walk north. I cannot worry my head again! I cannot! I will not! Man, you are a foolish race. You envy equilibrium, don't you? You cannot stand it! You are sick with envy. Fool! Fool! Fool! Keep up your death dance Your angry face, your hatred. No matter. The Mother loves us anyway. And I love Her. [Note: The 300-year old Keffer Oak at northbound Mile 663 is considered the oldest on the Appalachian Trail] -Peregrine Jack   Copyright 2005 Richard McKinney All Rights Reserved (Just ask & I'll likely let you reprint anything!)