This is a poem I wrote for Geez Magazine’s Advent reader in December 2023. The reader’s theme was “Prayers for the End of the World.” It got me thinking about the unstoppability of the Creator’s life force, constantly composting life out of death, and my longing to see this happen even after an apocalyptic environmental destruction. Geez sadly closed its doors this year, so I figured I could now publish this on my own website.
the eighth day
in the end
when humans are no longer being
in spite of all there has been
let there be
let there be lichen climbing blistered stumps
let the rising fungi filter toxins
let ivy twine the tire rims
let slow roots reclaim old roads
let moss coat rusted beams in beads of rain
let nature be lush teeming uncontained
let beetles be fruitful and multiply
let them draw the gun-shy birds
let the megafauna holler their return
let the ancient adapt let eccentric emerge
and if it be your will
let there be even one wide-eyed gardener
to behold your rewilding regreening earth
and call her good