variations on surefootedness
1
surefootedness
of water
dancing
down the library
of
skins we have been
soft
detonation of the dandelion clock
around
us
how
the tree invents the axe
how
the path invents the wheel
and
we keep walking
under
the forest’s wisdom
where
magic has baffled our disappearances
how
the dead sing us
how
we sing the dead to come
and
all the banality of tarmac and tin bursts open
in
a beech tree’s
piercing
bronze
manicure
o grandfather
let’s
stand into the storm together
surefooted
and ashamed and real
2
surefootedness
the giant
walking on the treetops
like
an orchestra of bulls
of
rain falling
onto
violins of light
where ferns hold out their map of the universe
globes
of rain roll in the hands of nasturtium
all
I have is the garden of memory
says
the city says the president
of
numb
not
seeing through
to
the map each leaf makes
which
has been said before
which
will be said again
which
will be hands
and
will fall
I
have been the skin of a raindrop
I have been
a hare’s track in the sand
