The Earth by Mary Meriam

I grabbed my witch’s broom too late to sweep the earth

under the rug. The watchers came to creep the earth.

 

How could I hide my eyes, and which way turn my feet,

without them watching, hand in grave, to reap the earth?

 

I put my spell on frothing crowds to pacify

the very rocking waves that ride and leap the earth.

 

In open sky, I leave the clouds, the jets, the stars,

the everlasting icy wind and weep the earth.

 

To battlements, I cry. Or just begin to cry.

Where is my girl’s green jacket? She will keep the earth.

 

Return my trees. Bring back the rocks and rooks, my treasures,

and all streams, swift or slow, the fields, the sheep, the earth.

 

When my true army carries wounded home, I’ll soothe

and heal the crippled seas, the silver deep, the earth.

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Mary Meriam is the founder of Lavender Review, co-founder of Headmistress Press, editor of Irresistible Sonnets, and author of The Lillian Trilogy. Her poems have been published by The New York Times, the Poetry Foundation, Oxford University Press, National Public Radio, Penguin Random House, University Press of New England, Seal Press, and many literary journals. Her third collection, My Girl's Green Jacket, is forthcoming in 2018.