Hey I think we should take a break
No, don’t speak!
Too wrapped up in the promise of progress,
The pangs of prosperity
That my wails have fallen on deaf ears
But you’ve ignored me long enough.

I’m sorry I am crying I just...

Ya know, we used to be in love once
I remember the way you would work my body...
The way you would tend to my skin,
hands trembling with devotion
I came to love those hands.
I would press kisses into them
Wet with crop,
with mineral
with life
And in return you would meet my mouth
With praises and prayers
The language of our love

You named deities after me:
La Pachama
Di Mu
And Persephone
Umay
Sif
And Terra
Stones were erected in my honor
Towering reminders of the beauty that
Lies beneath the dirt
The warmth that bubbles beneath the brooke...

But your tongue has been corrupted,
Stuck behind the smog in your throat
You inhale
And it tastes like productivity
Take deeper and deeper drags--
Baby you’ve become addicted--
The smoke billows.
I can no longer hear you.
I can no longer see you behind the
dollar signs in your eyes.
Your beautiful eyes
Blues as the sea
Green as the forest
Brown as the soil you tilled
I saw me in your eyes
But your eyes have morphed into a sterile gray
The color of success
Of skyscrapers
Of acres and acres and acres of concrete
I can no longer see me.

What happened to our love?
No--no, stop. I don’t want to hear your excuses
I am swollen with your empty promises and “maybe later”s
No more!
I am fit to burst but when the floodgates open
You will need more than an ark
To sea your way out of this one

I have watched as iron bars crept around my creations
But there is no silver lining to these cages
I have watched as you torched my lands
And have felt the flames lick up my skin
My eyes swollen and tears brimming as smog and smoke
Curl around the edges
I am in a chokehold now
You’ve put me in a chokehold!

How could you do this--
I
thought
you
loved
me?

What happened?

Stop! There is nothing left to say.
You have ruined me for too long
taken for too long
And now... I have nothing left to give

Don’t forget that you did this to yourself.
Pack your bags and get out.
We’re taking a break.