What is it
– today –
– a week ago –
sleeping in the dragonfield mines?
:the breath of passion flower overhead
the jaws of the dandelion
the strength of blood tulips
craning their stems through the shadow growth
how many times
– last night –
– the first week in May –
slipping through the fired lisps of dragon teeth?
:a wealth in persimmon juice
a poverty of lilies of the mountain west of Maine
the drawback of the morning glory
And now
– no rhyme left –
– yesterday –
a wild moon over the timber wolf trees,
the injury of silt within their branches,
plastic sawdust forced into block and stone:
Here is the arithmetic for everything mammal,
ancient trees carve out mud and brick,
one boulder leans against pebbles for support.
| Copyright © 2020 by Michael H. Brownstein Michael H. Brownstein’s volumes of poetry, A Slipknot Into Somewhere Else and How Do We Create Love?, were published by Cholla Needles Press in 2018 & 2019, respectively. |
Oh my Lord what a gorgeous poem! Just one of these Olympian lines would have been enough for most poems. The boulder leaning on pebbles...magnificent.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Your kind words really made my day--no, my week--no, my month-you get my meaning.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much.
Another fantastic poem.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing