The Endangered Species Act - Kate Dougherty

[Larry Robinson]

The Endangered Species Act
(February 22, 2017)

		Mysteries are not solved,
		they are entered upon
				Laurence Freeman

This is not my river
Nor is it yours
Not his river, not hers
No country, no map
Could own it
River is all
River has been
Is and will be

Eternal present through all ages
All who inspired us
All who loved us
All who nourished us
All who wished us gone
All who betrayed us
All who hated us
All who fought
All who won
All who lost
All who wept
All who saw
All unseen
There is none
Not here
All Species
Every one
We are this
This is us

And on this particular day
Some men and women
Further deconstruct us
Into extinction

On this day in the East
A certain highly educated arrogance
Settles into sessions
Along the river called there Potomac
To presume to whittle down
A hard won, grace given awe -
The interconnection of all Being

You know not what you do
How is it possible to forgive ignorance?
You know not what you do

Out of somewhere compassion blooms
Heart?   Flower?   Wellspring?  
Metaphor is but a limitation
An imitation, an innocent
Reaching for the flower of the moon
Above our crib
To know, to want, to touch
What is this I see?
What is this I feel?
Why do I want this?

Only true metaphor?
Everything is Everything -
Honing in on particular things 
Emotions, connections, weather in our sky
IS is the verbal connector
Is is this Mystery

The world is us
It is not yours
Theirs or mine
It is us, it is in us
We are it –
Sacred depths metaphor
Can only half conjure

And on this day, to the North
Along the river there called Missouri 
Mothers, grandmothers and children
Stand on treaty land
Surrounded by men, tanks, weapons
And the entire fossil fuel industry
A circle of aggression
In a noose set to tighten
This the last day of standing for Life
At Standing Rock

We endangered species
Act as we always have - extravagant bodies 
Specks of spectrum fusing
Flaring next to each other
In wild and subtle 
Pythagorean combinations cornicupian 
Be they feather, bark, scale, skin
dapple, stipple, fur, shell
Wellspring’s bubbling waters
We be as we be
In all manners of being

While extinction increases
Living decreases
Even though dammed
River flows to the bay
Bay flows to the ocean
Ocean takes us in

In this moment we live
In this moment we are alive

	- Kate Dougherty
  
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