I’m a river from my mother,
a one-generation life-form
and flood of flesh here to meet the child
of a woman, her mother, loin-launched
into the stream, daughter of daughters
back to the beginning of time. I arc
with all men through the brief sky
of our deeds and teaching, muscled
walls to protect the hive, never sad
to die because of our uselessness
to restore the world when we’re old.
So little to lose with no mother skin,
no seeds to hide in safe places.
Schönheit and warheit is all we can
court with besides our skill
at singing, hunting, and passing
stories to our sons and our daughters
who will take their places along the rope line
that comes up from the ground here
that all grasp with sex, laughter, pleasure, and love.