We once threw our spirits 

we once threw our spirits
across whole divides.
we could land in
and look from
another point of view.
we could sail our souls
across the seen and
and the hidden.
we could walk our own bones
to the source of the river.

now we fling our bodies
into places they could've
never gone.
we are trespassers where
we once were home –
souls arrested –
machines' ascension –
each rocket burns a hole
in the fabric of the sky,
scattering mayhem into orbit –
our world more brittle,
these rivers now dry.

once we leapt
from galaxy to canyon to limb –
we criss-crossed time
and we'd cling to the moon
so that we might hail
what's always been.
we stood on hilltops to greet
ten thousand things.
we carried a strange purpose
in the purse of
our hearts.
we considered ourselves here
alive among
the stars.

monte merrick