put it back

A poem by Jennifer Pratt-Walter

[Editor's note: This poem contains some violent imagery.]

put it back……put it

all back; the beginning wants

a new end

put the baby back into the womb

before the diagnosis,

put the adult back into their child body

before hatred

put the words back

that should not have torched our air    

softly throw the anger away

we were never your enemy

put the prayer back before sorrow

put my valiant cells all back

into their matrix, someone’s egg

someone’s sperm unswimming

place the bullets back into the gun,

unshoot them back to the foundry      take the shrapnel

from his daughter’s brain, reanimate the pierced fetus

in the mother.

go backwards until we untie ourselves from war

into the nameless place that quietly vibrates

take time’s hand and lead her to the befores:

before questions, before dark and light,

before energy and matter,

before the wings of being, before

any comprehension in our tiny volatile minds

to when time had no task

but to start counting when called.

Hear Jennifer read her poem:

put it backJennifer Pratt-Walter

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Jennifer (she/her) is a Crone who finds awe in the simple daily miracles of life. She is a professional harpist, poet and hobbyist photographer. Jennifer's poetry and photography have appeared in a number of print and on-line journals, including VoiceCatcher, Calyx, and Palette. Jennifer has three grown children and husband and lives on a small farm in Washington. No AI is used in her work.

Image:

Hallway by Ahmed