Will We Look

In still waters you can see
your own face clearly.
Let me be quiet,
rooted as a plant.
Let me bend my face over the waters.

She’s there, unexpected,
fluid spirit and fluid matter
Her task is always
being both.
She smiles back at me.

I am to step up
to something I don’t yet know;
that’s what she tells me.
I’ll bypass resistance,
and say Yes right away.

I lean away from the well,
and She takes her leave.
When I look again it’s only me,
same image but
in our expected dimension.

In still waters you can see
your own face clearly,
that’s what Robin wrote.*
What, I wonder,
will my new role be!

What, I wonder,
will the role of humans
in the braid of species
become.
Will we look into still waters?

©Susa Silvermarie 2025
*from Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer