What if lovers said
"sweet worm", "soil of my heart"
Imagine facing down in ecstasy to pray
not because we don't dare to look towards the bearded guy in the sky but because it's understood that those feet, that soil, this prayer
are all sacred

Why are the un-lovely things named soiled?
why look at the ground and call it dirt?
Such a thin loveless word for the home
of everything springing up from this earth

Why entomb our clever feet in strange substance
you tiny creatures swimming eons ago
coming to rest in rock, heated and pressed
unimaginably long, and all of a sudden
Struck ("black gold!")
pumped up, surfacing again in a confusion
of movement and dazzling light after so long

Now become soles for shoes.
As you walk your soles are the earth disguised
kissing itself at every step
<3