the uplift rejuvenated a river valley
politicians are rejuvenated by infusions of vampire blood
but perhaps most importantly the word rejuvenation is used
to describe how a soil system is returned
to an earlier state (not through “development”
but the opposite, “undevelopment,” or “rewilding”
or “laying fallow” or “leaving it the fuck alone”)
seeds brought by plants
seeds dropped by animals
seeds wanted and unwanted
we watch and wait, and intervene
selecting, if we have labor
and funding, which
plants get to stay
and which get ripped out,
feeling down stem
to find the end of the root
and then, pull
we depend upon a subsoil mycelial network
or worms that digest plastic, all the
lumbricina carbon capture possibilities
upon whom we place a lot of expectations
we may have forgotten, actually
how soil is formed
so, instead, we let it blow away
let the invasives take over
let it be buried under skinny skyscrapers
let permanent shadows fall upon it
let long shadows fall upon the fields
let the fields of sun be dark half the day
let half the day be dark let
it be completely unproductive
let us not put each tree in a pot
let us not make trees be decorative
to please us
let us not incite
trees to hate us
let us not hate
trees; let us not
hate green things
let us let them alone
let us let them be
with each other
in abundance
