Accrescent for millennia
With ancestor’s earth tending
And ancient, native beavers
Within and against every so-called age
From missionaries and miners, loggers and trappers
Assaulting abundance, pillaging wonders
Murderers and thieves masquerading as progress
To today — a renewed plunder
I capture her blackened trunk
With this pocket-sized toxic waste
And step within her cavernous scar
Was it negligence, arson, PG&E’s greed?
Man burned me the same, I tell her
Sitting with my back against her heartwood
Hollowed out my insides
But they could not torch my spirit
She says, We remain
Living roots source earth’s wisdom
Evergreen leaves connect with heaven’s mist
Our life, an act of protest
Not allowing man’s destruction to win
