RBG: In Memoriam
Apr 28, 2022
First story
RBG, Sept. 19,2020
She held on as long as she could,
cancer eating her body,
chemo that would have felled a lesser woman.
She must have felt us all leaning on her,
and stood as long as she could,
like a great tree in a burning forest.
As trees send out their desperate calls
to others in their tribe,
send chemical signals to quickly seed,
send pheromones to fend off the predators,
so her endurance fuelled our fight
as the violent hordes moved in.
We tried to prepare
but the earth shook when she fell,
and tears poured like the storms we have called for
during this time of drought and fire.
Can we hold the door without you, beloved?
Each of us a sister, rising in your circle,
unopened seeds bursting open in the fire,
beginning the long, slow journey from shoot to sapling,
sapling to tree,
remaking the forest even as it burns.
Adrienne Amundsen