Of the Earth

By Natalli Amato

Towards the river I go
stepping on yesterday’s leaves
that lie above the eternal soil.
Soil does not cry the way that I do
over this need to be an individual,
this longing to last.
Soil accepts its place in something larger -
matter breaking down in continuum 
so that newness may never be perceived 
even though it is renewed again, and again, 
by death’s unyielding changes. 

Natalli Amato is the author of the poetry collection On a Windless Night (Ra Press, 2019). Her writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Darling Magazine, and the Lily Review. She has forthcoming work in Blueline and New York Quarterly, among others. Natalli is a graduate of Syracuse University and she lives in upstate New York.