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.