we are driving across
the curve of the world
when the news of her last breath
comes
and we are struck by
tears
a mother lost
and I look out at the fields
stretching out
and I think
she was this prairie
this former grassland
of wind and sun and soil
that feeds the world
and touches teaches all with
her kindness
see her smiling eyes
crinkled with Saskatchewan sun
as she recalls her many many gardens
of flowers and food
and now she will be interred
in this rich ground
and her spirit will rise like heat waves
off the summer fallow
to join her mother
and husband
and daughter
and grandson
and granddaughter
and great-granddaughter
secure in a good life given on this earth
