If we believe nature will mend,
it will replenish what has been taken and,
answering the wild call of urban space,
dolphins will return to Venetian canals,
elephants will drowsy dream in Chinese tea gardens,
humans will shed their fear and guilt to hope and taste
the terror of responsibility
the terroir of ourselves
the terra ignota of a paradise where
buffalo are returning to the china shops,
burros are roaming wild in the taco trucks, and
cows are returning to the sea.
In the pause, though, we can hear
Creation creaking and groaning, and
I tell you, she is never spent.
Gretchen Bartels-Ray is an associate professor of English at California Baptist University. She lives in San Diego.
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