The Earth is a Living Thing

--Lucille Clifton

is a black shambling bear

ruffling its wild back and tossing

mountains into the sea

is a black hawk circling 

the burying ground circling the bones

picked clean and discarded

is a fish black blind in the belly of water

is a diamond blind in the black belly of coal

is a black and living thing 

is a favorite child

of the universe

feel her rolling her hand

in its kinky hair

feel her brushing it clean