Adam Pierce UnNoticed oil on canvas 34" x 36" 2000

To Vincent

The beautiful ones die
Tongue-tied
Arm-bound
Early.

They rise up from the roots
Of strangled flowers,
Arms stretched upwards,
Writhing beneath
The starry night of heaven.

Brow-furrowed, they walk
The earth with bold unsteady step.
Digging up and planting down.
Reaching toward the darkness
With arms open,
Embracing abyss and night,
Holding heavy-hearted souls with
Arms of infinite softness.

The beautiful ones die unnoticed
In holes of Adam-earth.
Alone in life, alone in death
Their ruby-throated sorrow
Sparrows into the hearts of a
Live-dead race.

Colors that would dance across
The face of sadness,
They tickle the tendrils of
Inconsolable grief.
Soft strokes and soundless words
Bring comfort to the comfortless,
Exalt the weak in beautifying death,
Pierce abcess-ridden hearts
Long sealed in a toxifying
Airless love.

Oh the beautiful
They die tongue-tied
And early,
And leave us
Arm-bound
And grieving
Ever after.

I Will Be Mourning

I will be mourning a long long time
The death of our earth.

I will long remember the carefree thoughts
Of child-days when time seemed eternal,
And possibility unlimited.

I will be long kissing the
Dying dirt, gently touching the
Dry decaying barks of trees.

O how I’ve loved this earth,
This mother from whom
Sprung a thousand million million,
Countless miracles,
Only to be sentenced to death by her
Last and final child.

Mankind has lived a fast
And foolish game,
Run mindless circles
Round the belly of his
Swirling blue-green mother:
Plucking up the trees and
Planting down cold steel,
Sucking in the sweet air to
Puff out an indigestible
Putrid muck.

The earth is dying-
Our glorious, timeless, bountiful
Earth, strangled
By a billion casual hands
Which knew no other occupation.

O let us sink down to the ground and
Kiss our sweet mother goodbye.
Lift hands to the dying skies and
Cry for mercy from a
Hot and thirsty doom.
And, with stinging tears, resign
Ourselves for what is to come.

I fear we can do no other.

Patricia Tobacco Forrester
Buckeye Spine
watercolor on paper
60" x 22"
2000

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