SAINT JOHN'S TIDE
The earth breathes out its summer truth in leaves ----
umbrellas over tattered planet skin ----
revealing memories of winter fears. Earth grieves
for negligence, the purely mortal sin.
At Saint John's Tide, the children shout
and leap across the fiery abyss
of twigs that symbolize the burning out
of last year's sins ---- they do believe in this.
He leapt for joy inside his mother's womb,
when news of cousin Jesus' coming filled
the universe ---- two sisters in one room
possessing every hope that gods had willed.
The turning point of human history:
the pregnant earth is still a mystery.