A Pledge
by Theodora Goss

I pledge myself to the Earth, my mother,
whose air I breathe tonight,
pledge myself to her and no other
beneath starlight.

While I live, she shall have the work of my hands
and the thoughts in my brain,
my laughter, my tears, compounded
of joy and pain.

When I die, she shall have my body,
such as it is,
to feed the slender white birches
and wood-anemones.

(The painting is Farmhouse With Birch Trees by Gustav Klimt.)