after Dana Henry Martin’s
“We Know Most When We Know Nothing”

Breath is not lost
as it leaves your body
for the sky.
The trees drink of us
and together we cause
the earth to swell
with green.
If only love was this
symbiotic, this simple.
Our minds resist
what the heart knows,
our eyes tell us lies.
Oh, if only our mouths
could feed the ravenous
world with kind words
there would be
no more
bombs forever.

~
Bio: Lana Hechtman Ayers has shepherded over 150 poetry collections into print in her role as managing editor for three small presses. She lives in Oregon on the unceded lands of the Yaqo’n people, where on clear, quiet nights she can hear the Pacific ocean whispering to the moon.