Testimony by Rebecca Badge

Testimony by Rebecca Badge

I want to tell you
that the world is still beautiful… 

I want you to look again and again, 
to recognize the tender grasses,
curled like a baby's fine hairs
around your fingers, as a recurring 
miracle, to see that the river rocks
shine like God, that the crisp 
voices of the orange and gold 
October leaves are laughing at death. 

I want you to look beneath
the grass, to note 
the fragile hieroglyphs 
of ant, snail, beetle.

I want you to understand that you are
no more and no less necessary 
than the brown recluse, the ruby- 
throated hummingbird, the humpback 
whale, the profligate mimosa.

I want to say, like Neruda, 
that I am waiting for 
"a great and common tenderness," 
that I still believe 
we are capable of attention, 
that anyone who notices the world 
must want to save it.