“Earthlife,” Ensign, June 1981, 13
Earthlife
Day in
Day out
Day inch
Day ouch.
Sunrise, Sunset,
Some rays, sum spent.
Never steadyeversteady stillness.
Always clacky syncopation,
Bumps
to jog my mind
and make me grapple for a stand.
As I face the travel on,
day out
will drill some doubt,
day in
might dangle sin.
But opposition makes the zing
of rebound
real.
I sometimes hurtle breathless back
spent from bitter earthlife tick
to better understand a tock.
And so I feel a swelling zeal
as day-in drone and day-out pound
day by day begins to sound
more like a lovely overture:
Music only just begun.
My own eternal symphony.
Photography by Eldon Linschoten