First, water the seedlings.
Yes, even before coffee, before breakfast,
before picking up pen and notebook
and writing the day into being.
Before words, seeds. Water, sun,
wind, birds at the very tops of trees.
Imagine being more
than a creature of the economy—
generator of products for sale,
consumer of products for sale—
more than mere medium of commerce.
Not a tenth of your worth is money.
You are not to be exchanged.
This is the morning talking to you,
you meaning me.
These are the seedlings talking to me.
–
Margaret Rozga is the author of five books, including Holding My Selves Together: New & Selected Poems (Cornerstone Press, 2021). She edited the poetry anthology Through This Door: Wisconsin In Poems, one of the projects of her term as the 2019-2020 Wisconsin Poet Laureate.