So light passes through leaf

From leaf

I long to learn

to let light

through every cell.

 

What is this light passes through leaf?

 

When the leaf does not eclipse my eye,

the light lands where I can see it,

subsumed in other light

(or being more mobile than leaf, perhaps I

am the one with agency to eclipse).

 

What light passes through leaf?

With eye within the penumbra I can barely see it;

such bright light shuts my pupil:

I shun the glare involuntarily:

it lands in my iris.

 

What light comes through?

In the umbra I dilate.

I dilate as if on purpose–

purpose–iris–unfallen leaf

 

From leaf I long to learn

to unimpede,

to look less solid,

as I know I am as much space between atoms

as the space between stars.

 

-Karina Lutz 

 

Karina Lutz worked as a sustainable energy advocate for three decades. Earlier, she received an MSJ from Medill School of Journalism and worked as an editor, reporter, and magazine publisher. She’s currently collaborating to launch a permaculture community, Listening Tree Cooperative.