A Late Magnificat

To be dust, flaking from the earth’s crust
Made up of the grains of ages long past
Magma once, perhaps, or dried up seawater,
Or just the great-great-granddaughter of an ancient trash heap
Is still to be born from the same earth that formed
– somehow, in an instant –
The body of a divine God-man in a virgin’s womb
Herself dust, but her arms stretched open wide
Her lungs clear and proclaiming “Let it be done,
Magnify, overshadow, rejoice.”
Perhaps the rocks and oceans yearn to say the same –
I feel them straining out from my bones.
I must learn to speak for them, to give voice
To the hunger of the dead and dying earth.
So, Lord, strip it all to dust –
Let it be done, as if I am gone from it all
Magnify, overshadow, may the earth rejoice.

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Katie Boord is an emerging poet from Kansas. She works in a geology lab by day, and sings in an indie rock band by night. Her poems have been published in Heart of Flesh Literary Journal and Poetry Super Highway.