Remember all rocks contain water,
water vibrates, like voice, like memory,
microtubules they call them,
navigation in a bird’s brain,
a wet system of coherence. The boulder
becomes pebble in the mouth of the river
and the pebble remembers.
The nightingale flies across the Sahara
in one flight in order to sing
a singular song his mate will find sexy.
Transience and endurance. How do we do it?
We stack rocks on gravestones: water for the journey.
A symbol of permanence. Remember,
even tree roots talk to each other.
They share nutrients, give warning,
bear witness. This comforts me.
When my nephew died, I imagine the tree
he chose felt that tug, then
the odd suspended weight,
so he did not die alone.
Believe in the flight of the soul.
Sometimes the world is dark.
Remember water. Remember rock.
–
Michele Bombardier’s debut collection What We Do (Kelsay Press, 2018) was a Washington Book Award Finalist. She has published poems and reviews in Alaska Quarterly Review, Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Poetry International, and many others. Michele has an M.F.A. from Pacific University and is a Mineral School and Hedgebrook fellow. She is the founder of Fishplate Poetry, a social-purpose organization that provides workshop and retreats for writers while raising money for humanitarian relief, specifically medical care for refugees in the Middle East and Northern Africa through SAMS (Syrian American Medical Society).