The Duty of Reciprocity
Ruby Seidner
Reciprocity is stewardship.
It’s the land that you love,
loving you back.
It’s realizing that love is conditional.
That positive relationships with land
can in fact happen,
but they must be stoked.
With caring love, and attention.
If we just pick, and dig, and drill
to our hearts content,
and not give an equal amount back,
Our earth will turn into a roaring fire,
and burn us alive.
We have time though.
Not a lot, but enough.
Time to run recklessly through wild forests.
Time to reconnect with golden shrubbery.
Time to talk to the earth,
and figure out the depth of her need.
We don’t have to do everything now.
But we must plant literal, and figurative roots
in our ground.
Before it's too late.
Our land is meant to be planted upon,
drilled, and taken from.
But it’s also meant to be loved, cared for, and not taken for granted.
I can hear its moaning cries,
saying give me something I can’t just keep giving and giving
without getting anything back.
Now, is our time to stop our collective narcissism, and
Stop assuming that just because our land can’t speak in the way we can
Does not mean its cries are less valuable.
Now is the time to not just be good stewards, but good people.
It’s the land that you love,
loving you back.
It’s realizing that love is conditional.
That positive relationships with land
can in fact happen,
but they must be stoked.
With caring love, and attention.
If we just pick, and dig, and drill
to our hearts content,
and not give an equal amount back,
Our earth will turn into a roaring fire,
and burn us alive.
We have time though.
Not a lot, but enough.
Time to run recklessly through wild forests.
Time to reconnect with golden shrubbery.
Time to talk to the earth,
and figure out the depth of her need.
We don’t have to do everything now.
But we must plant literal, and figurative roots
in our ground.
Before it's too late.
Our land is meant to be planted upon,
drilled, and taken from.
But it’s also meant to be loved, cared for, and not taken for granted.
I can hear its moaning cries,
saying give me something I can’t just keep giving and giving
without getting anything back.
Now, is our time to stop our collective narcissism, and
Stop assuming that just because our land can’t speak in the way we can
Does not mean its cries are less valuable.
Now is the time to not just be good stewards, but good people.
Ruby Seidner is a fifteen-year-old poet, published writer, creator of the educational database ProjectGenZWrites and winner of the Running Start Political Simulation for High Schoolers. She is incredibly passionate about art, poetry, advocacy, and reproductive justice. In her free time you can find her stressing about her grade in math and watching political thrillers when she should be walking the dog.
