Hope

by Lisa López Smith

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Everything in the ocean:
baby dolphins with their awkward 
learning-to-leaps, whales, microorganisms,
small sharks and big sharks, 
fish of all sizes –
one day 
will be consumed,
and by consumed
I mean transformed,
I mean fuel for another,
life for another –
who one day will give up its life
to be consumed by another –
and love isn’t just flowers 
and sunset walks,
it is mostly blood, tendon, cartilage;
it is sleeves rolled up and generous
tenderness, and what are we
but part of this ecosystem
of belonging:
dirt, stars, a handful of fresh-picked 
strawberries, knitted socks, bread 
for the neighbors and homemade soup,
sunshine and rainwater in the gutters –
which of course used to be
a cloud, a pond, a river,
groundwater, and a glacier –
used to be breath,
soil, compost, seeds,
a bird ten thousand years ago 
sitting here now in your hand.
Can you hear its song?

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Lisa López Smith is a mother and farmer based in Mexico. Her poems and essays have appeared in over sixty literary journals and have been nominated for the Pushcart, Best New Poets, and Best of the Net. She has a chapbook published by Grayson Books and a forthcoming collection from Nightwood Editions.

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