Lament for Spilled Milk

A moment I pause to gaze upon you

Spread out, cold and white

Still beautiful in this moment

Before the final goodbye

And I feel in the pure brightness of your even-now presence

The fields, the farmland, the grass gently waving

And cold rain falling

The fertile earth

And musky mother smells

Of which you are made

Life-giving Nurturer,

Your singular purpose now forever frustrated,

And for no reason but the wanton carelessness of humankind,

May I so weep today for you,

That tomorrow no clumsy error shall

Deny another the fulfillment of being given,

Wholly, to the sacred act

Of sustaining Earth’s children

And as you are dissolved

In water, broken apart by detergent,

Washed into drain field or sewage treatment plant,

May the nutrients once gathered and held in you

Return at last

To the ground

Dust to dust