The Fragile Living Poem by Stacie Brethauer

Frail
Bended wick
Spider twine
Stretched between
Twigs
And the wind howls
Flame
Blown cold
On the sea

Smoke
Rising
Indistinguishable at heights
Unseen
Imploring
The gods

Life
Expected to be
Mortared to earth
Yet swept out
To sea
Swallowed whole
Digested

Concrete
Shifted
Distinguishable shape
To formless
Remains
Spread across
A great expanse
Yet you
Attend
With your heart
You see the shapes
Take form
In all manner
Of ghost
And spirit
Demanding vigil

Death resides here
Memorialized
Driven deep
Embedded
In auborn landscape
Entombed
The damned
The dead
The innocent
The loved
And lost
And stranger
And neighbor

Bones and flesh
Blood and water
Wine and bread
Water and blood
Mingled
In the sea
Who swallowed
The fragile
Living.


written in Phuket, Thailand February,2005 after the Tsunami