255.
Protect this fading image from all the
angry images
this image I made as me
I am the one who thinks myself to be
bad think bad god
to make this double little world of
me and it
make the other be one with me
or one of me or I am none
and where are you in all these trees
leafier this year than ever I’ve
known
after the locust trees blossomed all
spring
the basswoods our lindens blossomed high
summer
their fragrance fills the house all
night when the wind moves.
256.
Once I wanted what would walk through
the door
because the guest is god I am an
atheist
some pollen fallen from another’s
tree
grows an absolutely different kind of
grain
go inside time to its relenting
suppose I were rain along your spine
would your mind turn rain into
someone else
the way not even the weather is
personal
smoky breath of an old friend
the taste in someone else’s mouth a
word is
once you have seen the picture you’ll
never stop
we have to keep talking to the world
to make it go?
257.
The snail shells move in the night
like ship
who knows where the copper is that
breathes the blood
scratch of a pen on an ancient map
here are the islands of the ancestors
listen and you’ll hear your fathers
calling
they are praying for the clouds to
let them through
they have a name for you a permission
survival of the fastest
dark dark the word gouged in wet sand
they were here before you they’re the
fathers
you think at first it is the traffic
or the birds
but deep in your belly you know
better.
