Poetry

Tectonic Turbulations

Tectonic Turbulations

They say that you need to learn to love yourself before you can love another…

But the first lesson of love you experience is always from your mother.

There are places in this world where the earth cannot learn to love itself.
Places where it tears itself in two.
A continental drift that leaves scars that even time will not heal.
Places where mirrored reflections of love crack and splinter.
Before sinking into the depths where only despair seems to rise.
The fire inside whose only desire is to burn brighter,
To make the burden lighter;
Is dulled and darkened,
By the turned backs and bowed heads
Of the children whose life it strived to give.

What was given freely,
Was snatched harshly from outstretched hands.
What was grown,
Was wrenched from the heart until it shattered.
The earth cried:
“I am no salvaged wasteland for you to set a light.
No beacon to the damned,
To lead you through the night.
You may take all that I can give.
But if I die, then you will no longer live!”

She shows you visions of your future,
As lightning strikes across the sky!
The tides begin to rise!
And the flowers start to wilt.
To devastate your mother is a child’s greatest sin.

Though a mother’s greatest virtue is to forgive.
The time has come to make a change.
But change cannot come to pass until we learn to love.
Give back all that we took,
And give her time to grow.

There are places in this world where even the earth cannot learn to love itself.

Nikki Marrone

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