Enveloped by the sacred: Tinicum

Note: I took a walk recently with my son and partner in Tinicum, also known as the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge.

This poem is a reflection on that walk and the conversation we had. We noticed that the destruction of the environment far away is also here in our midst, all around us.

We've been talking quite a bit about Shared Security at AFSC and this conversation brought home for me how connected our fate is with the fate of those far away.

There is no cocoon protecting us from environmental wreckage or other kinds of violence - our futures are intertwined and interdependent. - Lucy


Walking on paths blanketed in leaves that crackle

Two white cranes swooping against soft blue air

Orange, red, brown leaves dipping towards the water

Turtles lumbering through the mud just beneath the surface

 

And two, partner and son, home to me, walk beside me

 

Son speaks outrage - a Palm oil plantation in Cameroon threatens orangutans

He has written an essay about it, "Humans suck"

 

Tinicum

We walk in a holy place that may be only a memory

The airport neighbor intends to encroach

Enveloped are we by the sacred as the bulldozer of destruction creeps nearer

 

I look out across the marsh and see the sky fingering the earth

Grasses pushing toward the light

 

Life flourishes at the edges

 

Hold my hand, together we might refuse the death temptation