Poetry


i need some desert in my cheekbones

some searing hot light that pierces me

some gritty dirt and stone under my feet

i need some hard edges that cut the sky

some lines that break the landscape

some bleakness that shouts out to me

“you don’t belong here so come on in

and walk around and make yourself

at home, intrepid stranger of recent times”

it’s raining and cold and
i’m content to not be 
occupying anything other
than my own mind
which is likely less
organized than a city 
park with tents and 
drum circles and ipads
 
i have an 800 credit rating
and school loans greater
than fifty K and a house
valued a smidgen or two
greater than said loans by
the tax collectors, and i can
go ride a bike after driving
some hours to the trail head
 
the rain falls in a mist, the
skies are somber grey with
no light of white-ness, just
the drab distorted kind that
filters through seemingly
miles of thick clouds that
hang in every direction, 
yes, north south east west
 

And the royalty were blissed out and the certifcate’d birthers had a setback only to be redeemed by Mitch’s Hoosierites planning a better parenthood.  Wars waged on and new ones began.  The stormy skies turned sunny and blue and the knobby tires met paved tar only to be pushed back by the gatehouse keeper wanting two bucks for my passage to the lands where the bluecoats slaughtered the feathered headdress wearers.

Later on, my head began to clear in thought of the words of Wendell Berry:

For the Future

Planting trees early in spring
we make a place for birds to sing
in time to come.  How do we know?
They are singing here now.
There is no other guarantee
that singing will ever be.
 
man, those howlers were barking up a storm
when we arrived, stepping out of the car
and into the humid seaside evening air

the next morning in the rain, we didn't
see them, but heard 'em, and i got my
best howler monkey guttural call on

it didn't matter because it was raining
in the rainforest along the caribbean
and the sound of them was good enough

as if you're going to believe that, dear
reader, we wanted to see them, and is
why i howled more than a few times
 

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