On Earth As it Is

The Miracle: Lullaby for Lost Children
Melanie Rae Thon

Pink pyrola, trailing daisy—magenta flames of shooting stars,
brilliant gold of glacier lilies.

Hush now, beloved.

The hummingbird comes to sip from foxglove and Sweet William,
drinks from the hollyhock, opens the snapdragon.

Why are you afraid?

The smallest poppies bloom rose and scarlet, surrendering
themselves to light, waving
illuminated hearts
in a bed of violet iris.

All life is love.

Bluebirds sing before dawn, as if stars
shimmer in their throats, and day
rises from them.

What more evidence do you need?

Snow melts into dark earth and here in damp woods white trillium blossoms.

River, cloud, birch, aspen—do you love only what returns love,
or have you learned to love stone and silence?

The thrush holds one radiant note so sweet and clear it seems the bird will shatter—
and then it does shatter: into a heart-sparking
ripple of song that echoes tree to tree and leaves the earth trembling.

Melanie Rae Thon's most recent book is the novel Sweet Hearts. She is also the author of Meteors in August and Iona Moon, and the story collections First, Body and Girls in the Grass. Her work has been included in Best American Short Stories (1995, 1996), three Pushcart Prize Anthologies (2003, 2006, 2008), and O. Henry Prize Stories (2006). She is also a recipient of a Whiting Writer's Award (1997), two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1992 and 2008), a Writer's Residency from the Lannan Foundation (2005), and a fellowship from the Tanner Humanities Center (2009). Originally from Montana, Thon now lives in Salt Lake City, where she teaches in the Creative Writing and Environmental Humanities programs at the University of Utah.

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