To Wed Every Object

Jef Bourgeau

The nature of humanity, its essence, is to feel another’s pain as one’s own, and to act to take that pain away. There is a nobility in compassion, a beauty in empathy, a grace in forgiveness.

~John Connolly

*

WHEN I WAS THE FOREST

When I was the stream, when I was the

forest, when I was still the field,

when I was every hoof, foot,

fin, and wing, when I

was the sky

itself,

no one ever asked me did I have a purpose, no one ever

wondered was there anything I might need,

but there was nothing

I could not

love.

It was when I left all we once were that

the agony began, the fear and questions came,

and I wept, I wept. And tears

I had never known

before.

So I returned to the river, I returned to

the mountains. I asked for their hand in marriage again,

I begged — I begged to wed every object

and creature,