Then Comes the Remembering by Leigh-Anne Burley

Cocooned grief etched on prairie skylines.

Ancient ones roam on buffalo backs

prayers arise toward plateau’s rock giants.

Marooned round-bellied women

bobbing on milk-foam waves.

Eagles’ throats are full of memories

of the stillborn from divided nations.

An emerald-eyed dragon’s spiked tail

zig-zags across our enchanted land

devouring dreams.

The sprawling darkness 

seeps between willows,

weeping for long-delayed justice.

Church bells toll for felled trees

whose frayed roots 

clutch the wounded earth.

In earth’s warm womb,

stumps sprout green shoots

herald ripening fields.

Storm bursts drawing from eternal wells

yield green fruit,

nurtured by sage-scented breezes.

The desert roses’ pink petals unfurl, 

float upon honey-eyed waters

transport our stories 

into strobing quasars.