by A.M. Davis

`                             I am neither the hummingbird nor the honey bee.

Forget the obvious pretty      forget the product        forget the thing you love

to love

I am the fly                 that you would die without

`                                            that thing

that everything dies without        that thing that was       born to be in love with       moving

DNA plant stuff          that thing that everything needs to cook up life and carry on

so flowering plants can carry you on                  as you think I am a lesser version

of a butterfly you write poems about            after you put on your white gloves

and go into your backyard                and pick your purely bred

roses, red            to put on your                dining room table.

The answer to the question “Can people really be that stupid?” is always

                                                 “yes”

I read, and I laughed       without real amusement at the end of earth as we’ve know it

so much muchness      in the name of stupid      and crop yields      the answer is always yes

`                                           to make a culture/system/structure

replace five thousand                                                 indigenous cultures                           yes

so why not       replace ten thousand        species of plants

with one guy      with a comb-over       and a gene spicing kit

so that      we can insert their stead      one species

of plant that someone said       should be sweeter than candy      last a year on a shelf

taste good as heroin        as it gives us diabetes      and cancer

but we can fix that          declare a war on stuff               we’re great that way

the answer is still always yes     to wish a hearty goodbye     to ten thousand generations

of stewards of Turtle Island     with godless wild notions     that every inch of the planet

is alive with wild love for us     kill off the notion that     to love to truly love enough

is to pronounce the word “sacred”               and then make this earth truly so

just                         like                      that

and then       let’s act like        we like the idea        so much we

want to be them       without really being them        after we have gotten quite weary of

our notions of whiteness       we’ll call them noble        or cool

once they are gone from earth      or imprisoned       or no longer in our neighborhood

let’s scramble      to make it all better      because       all of a sudden

`                                     the whole world smells funny

and the noon sky isn’t really supposed to       look like that

newborn babies aren’t supposed to      make us cry       when we look at them

but we do look away       when they are misshapen       infected from our viruses

The answer

`                                                                    is always                           yes.

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A. M. Davis was born and raised in Oakland, California. She is storyteller/poet, a speaker on behalf of the Earth. In 2007, she walked away from her job to devote her life to her creativity. Upon attending a silent meditation retreat, she found space of time in her racing mind, and discovered that she was not her thoughts. This led to daily meditation, retreats, and becoming part of the East Bay Meditation Center community. She recently discovered the Joanna Macy’s work, and the trajectory of her life finally made sense.

You can find more of her work at annmariedavis.com.