Evidence Suggests That Dirt is Beneficial to Your health
You already knew that. Reaching down,
Scooping and shaping with bare hands,
Absorbed and entranced with the dark,
Grainy soil that clings to your skin, you know
In your bones the boundless mystery
Reaching back thousands of years
In this patch of prairie where we have camped
For the past thirty-four. You know
There is a connection I miss
With my practical gloves
And long-handled tools, an ancient
Wisdom that seeps into your blood,
Carrying countless generations
Of grass-songs and oak-stories.
You touch an ancient prairie-fire
Of gratitude, a rough blessing
You carry in your blood as you work
On hands and knees,
Teasing out the roots of weeds,
Tending the delicate future.
© 2007 by W. Patrick Tilcock