Extended Sonnet for Unborn Seeds

Velianna Catalano, “Untitled”

by Alexander Schell

What once lived in this barren place, I knew 

with a creator’s intimate remorse. 

My cracked hands guided their trunks as they grew,

my gentle breath kept their branches antrorse. 

We knew joy when they were young. The blue jays 

sang beautifully and the breeze blew with ease

but youth does decay, and life rarely stays;

cold hearts give way to a loveless disease. 

I followed the western sun to new lands.

Upon heavy heart I swore no more seeds

would be held first by unloveable hands, 

serve unjust penance for my sinful deeds. 

But love lasts far longer than piety.

By the whispering breeze, I was misled.

Fantasy gave way to sobriety 

when I returned to find my children dead. 

Cradled in cracked hands, blackened by the cold, 

broken native stems wrote creation myths

which remembered a love selfishly sold. 

A new oath was sworn ‘pon their cherished piths:

good love would grow life from this ground once more.

I would give all the love this ground wanted. 

Blood, sweat, and joy spilled in droves on this floor. 

She would not have to know that it’s haunted.

My last love did not live through the winter.

Sin seeped to the soil, tainted the weather.

I took from her spine only a splinter.

The jays were still. We mourned her together. 

Down goes the cradle once hung from the bough, 

and this will just be a place to me now.