by Jane Brunton

Created on: June 21, 2008

RAPE

The valley, green and flat as a pool table, stretches in the protective embrace of a jealous mountain.
Like a ripe young woman she is too beautiful to last.
Even the craggy arms of her mountain lover cannot stay the ravages of man.

He will slice through those arms and rape her flower-filled womb.
From the rape will issue the children, Rock, Sand and Mud who betray her.

The giant spiders of communication and light will string their unsightly webs from prickly poles. Deep cuts of asphalt and cement will scar her face like a razor wielded by a mad man.

Her eye-like pools will become dry sockets unable even to weep.
Her mouth will belch poisons and her nostrils become encrusted with grime.
Her hairline of silky trees will recede, torn from the very roots.
Her ears will long for birdsong but hear only buzz saw.

When they've stolen her beauty they will tire of her, as all men do, and leave her dying alone and forgotten.

But in her darkest night, gentle rains will wash her clean.
Dawn will see the tender vines begin their climb across her bruised face, smoothing sharp edges, healing her scars.

She, Mother, will survive us all.

Andes Mountains between Puyo and Alausi, Ecuador, 1998

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