Hindsight
by Stephen Wing
(First published in Rural Southern Voice for Peace)
The ones who
dig up the ground to make power,
they forget
whose power it is
The ones who use up
the ore in the rocks to make war,
they forget
where power comes from
We who sleep
in this soft place on the earth,
we remember
the debt we owe to gravity
We who sit
in council with the rocks and trees,
we remember
a stone guards every grave
Any place is powerful
where we choose to stand and give
our lives to the earth
The roots go down into the ground
Stephen Wing lives in Atlanta, where he serves on the boards of the Lake Claire Community Land Trust and Nuclear Watch South. He is the author of five books of poems, including Wild Atlanta, inspired by his quarterly “Earth Poetry” workshops exploring the city’s many urban greenspaces, and his latest, Washed in the Hurricane, focusing on climate change. Visit him at StephenWing.com.
