It flows all around us and creates us
From our first gush as its cushion loosens
We flow out after it
And in the end it is expelled from us before our last gasp
It is life giving to all of our beginnings and to our finish
As it enters before our life and before our spirit enters the next world
The life spirit of water
Is in a mother's tears
And in her milk
In her saliva
It flows blue from the sky
And feeds red of our blood life
In soil and skin
It retains itself in our bodies from what we eat
Inside ourselves and deep inside Mother Earth
It cleans us and cools us then warms us
It has flowed over our ancestors
And now pours over us
It is sacred in its spirit and movement, shape and time
It travels in circles from bodies of water on earth
To clouds up high in the sky
It begins and ends in drops
But connects as one
And unites in a flow
It plays with us in a spirit of fun moving us to and fro
Or it can crush us fill our lungs and suffocate the breath pressed out
It can polish a stone
Grow a tree
Wash away land
And sit gentle on a web strand
It quenches our thirst
And washes our organs
It is all that we are
It is Mother Earth's blood
And we are connected to every drop
And as her children we must guard
What she gives us
LauraLee K. Harris
