Turtle’s Fall

She tried to open to imagine

Eagle’s high, wide world.

“Take me; show me!” she begged her friend.

Eagle’s talons held the stick

and turtle’s jaws clamped tight.

Then up, up into a dizzy dazzle of heaven!

“Oh!” said turtle, and down went turtle,

and turtle struck the earth,

and turtle’s world shattered.

It was a broken turtle (patchwork turtle:

quilt mirroring fields seen from on high)

who healed again, alone, so slowly.

Turtle’s shell sheltered her again.

Crisis slowed to allow meditation

to open up to wholeness,

step by step,

breath by breath,

moving forward, hopeful,

under the perfect dome of sky

(quilt-patched with clouds)

on the broken earth's curved back.

© Tamara Rasmussen 2018