Like Venus

This draft is inspired by the frequency of waking up at 3am (hello, perimenopause), the erosion of soil and civil rights, and this quote from the Brazilian Minister of the Interior, who warned that, without radical change, “the earth will end up like Venus, charred and dead.”

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedIt is the time of 3am wake up calls,awareness of the silent nothingnessthe in-breath of airless atmospheres.Eyes open drinking in the darknesshearing visions whispered from the next planet over.Blind eyes, so easy to turn in the daylightwill not comfort here.Dilated pupils a receptacle for every thoughtless harm perpetrated in the daylight.I feel in the ache and aging of my body,the slow erosion of anything like compassion.There is space, in the predawn darkness,for love, the unbreakable thread of everything,to emerge, drift over me--I catch it in both hands, hold it fast to the center of my belly,so I can find and follow lovewhen daylight blinds my eyes again