were stuck underground
and the entire world watched
and held its breath
as the entire world extracted them
one by one by one
from the depths to the cheering crowds?
Remember how that earth
dark and hard and soft in hidden places
had every reason to kill her rapists
to crush the subterranean pirates
and yet she held them
and sang to them
and then released them to the sky?
Maybe she still remembers
and longs for the time
when we remembered
just how much she held us
just how much she sang to us just how close we were © Meisaan Chan
