Photography © Edward S. Gault

 

and of course
the Earth knows no natural
contradiction, the
cruel tools which
cleave Her skin
do not alleviate pain,
extend Life, if that
could be, no, they
scratch, claw, bite and
bore, a constant mauling
affliction that Our Mother
must bear since She
bore us.
No,
Our Mother
does not require surgery
but those who tire
of Her Sweet and Open
flowing Teat of
waterfruit allbundance,
they mechanically contrive more, so,
Our Mother
is bled and gouged, stripped
to sore ugliness
lesions fester
in her flower
perfect
form.

 

Jack Powers founded the Stone Soup Poetry reading series in 1971, which celebrates its fifty-first anniversary this May. He passed away in 2010. The above poem comes from his 1975 chapbook, Misshaped Angel, which is prefaced with this statment: “People are only interesting insofar as they are feminine, which is to say, human.”

Edward S. Gault is a poet and fine art photographer. He lives at Mosaic Commons, a co-housing community in Berlin, Ma.