Patient Soil

Beneath
there are tender tendrils creeping
and tiny life forms
masticating
digesting
excreting out the transformed dead


we feed each other
we eat each other
we scatter and lay
and dampen and decay
and the tiny veins
take us over
take us down


slowly slowly
we cross the ground
until we are broken
and fall
slowly
slowly
we hasten towards death
transform our withering
we eat each other
we are fed


drift down through
the layers and be consumed
mycelial skin
coating
devouring
slowly slowly


the soil is patient
we are patient soil
we carry and are carried
across and down
we filter
it all
through us
and we are dispersed
in the quiet dark
of the earth
the mosses and lichens and liverworts
the microbes and tiny bugs
ants and shadows
break down
the
broken
and dead


we are steadily transformed
we are not waiting
we tend to this every moment
(solve et coagula)
the soil
feeds us
and we
feed it


it is patiently waiting
feeling our weight
as we move
across
and down


into the tender tendrils
the arms
and mouths
of the quiet
dark
earth