How Alex Spoke to Wild Earth

when midnight cold
lies on the shoulder of your land
and I can’t sleep.
Trees drop snow on my tongue.
All is black.

when the break of dawn
sears the rim of sky.
Minarets of chimney rock
toss shadow down,
down into nothing.

when my cheek and sweat
cool against your marbled cliff.
A band of quartz
runs beneath my body,
and colors the scarp and jag. 

when I kneel in beating sun
and trail sand.
There is no sound.
There is no scent
but mint and pennyroyal.

when light breaks water
on a ruffle of wind.
Below, in green mud,
a lattice flickers,
lit like cut glass. 

when humans call to me
with stories and marvels,
and I must leave.
But I’ll find you
in quiet or wild.

I want you most
when my days end,
and those who love me
bring my bone dust back.
They throw me from a mountaintop
beneath a covey of stars,
and from there, we’ll travel on.

Mylo Schaaf, author of the children’s book, Our Gandhi, is a Professor of Medicine, and works on global health outreach at the University of California, San Francisco. Mylo studied journalism and was immersed in book editing before entering medical school. As a physician, her career has focused on medically underserved populations in US and global locations. One day, during a shocking phone call, a world of engagement and action collapsed. Her 24-year-old son, a veteran/mountaineer/peace-and-conflict scholar, had passed away in a gun accident. Poems emerged over the next 11 years, as she searched for a path among those who have lost - who question what is normal now, if wilderness holds comfort, what might come next, and where to look for magic and even healing.