On this longest night,
listen to the wailing of the wild.
Hold vigil with the grief of the earth.
Remember: from soil humanity was made
and to soil humanity will return.
Sources of life forgotten and betrayed.
Relationship ruptured by violent ideologies.
White supremacy’s destruction
more reliable than the seasons it disrupts.
Power plants grow where poverty does too.
Bodies exposed to toxins. Clean air is a luxury.
Life choked from water by pipelines and runoff.
Consumerism and colonization – kindle for fires of destruction.
Slaughterhouses cut off all respect for creaturely life.
Corporate profits rise – global temperatures too.
How weary, the land.
The night only fades into more night.
The sun can’t get out of bed.
Keep silent all spiritual platitudes.
For too long, there has been no earth in your heavens.
What good is disembodied Love
to the lakes, to the squirrels, to the plants
that feed and nourish you?
No, just come and sit.
And hear the body of God
weeping.