Another one

After the "making of eve" contest a little while back, I kept thinking about the idea, finally decided to do another one, and go in a slightly different direction with it.

                 artemis calls out

     in the petaled light. through the flint-cold
evenings passing through winter i've
       come here, where water rises

     from the ground, the rocks
              washed with shadow
 and murmer of leaf-sound,

    in leaf-soft air. memory
            plays in the breeze, tells
another time before, when groves

    and meadows like this one
  spilled rampant over the earth,
       green plains and backbone

     of high ridges that now stretch bare.
    machinery of industrial minds, calculus
          of diminishing returns

  that could expand but not grow,
       ferment but not bare fruit, grab
     but not grasp. the grinning man

   in the picture tube shrugging
       his shoulders, the tall eminence
  whose eyes do not close or open,

 the haggard-faced man, shoulders
       slumping, who hisses
it doesn't matter as long as i think it.

 ashes of winter, rubble of spring, here
               to this place, where the water
    gathers and deepens,

   the green boughs bend and dip
         near the lone wind-worn column
    that stands broken amid broken stone,

   in the rising evening, under tears
        of starlight. now, in the silence,
a drop of moonlight

   touches the rippled surface,
      cool and petal-soft, nearly solid,
almost a sound, a voice

   high and bow-curved -- alone,
        speaking no words, now
 i step toward the water's edge,

  listening to the roar and the whisper,
        the silence, the memory
    of flight and new-sprung desire,

     and step forward out into the water.