Le Châtelier (2022)
Sand and water and salt and sun,
jagged edges and those softened
by the hands of erosion -
all a complicated equation
that must balance on both sides.
But in the moments of fragility
where the sand overwhelms the salt
or there is too much water in the clouds,
the Earth must recognize itself as sideways,
its overwhelm becoming an engine of balance.
If my sand reaches too far
or my hands become too heavy,
I must bend. And what of my overwhelm?
The smallest and most inhuman
parts of me rushing from gland to gland
in ancestral panic - not themselves knowing
that I and I and I and I bear witness.