Beneath
Five short poems about what lives beneath what we can see. They are from the collection, Feather and Leaf, and, if memory serves, were written in their initial form more than 30 years ago. Hope you enjoy.
Nine
born
after birth
after sex and
the truth seeking wisdom
that is ageless and ageless
but unreliable and fleeting and soon
gone and forgotten and a small part
of your brain is trying to remember something
you know you once knew but have lost
like the key to a house you never find
Genes
i have felt
the fingers of the night
slip out
from the loam
like earthworms
and find themselves
alive
in the moist
grass
and the cool
wind
of a summer evening
The Fishing Huts
we cannot close their mouths
or silence their terrible syllable
of unforgiveness
the souls have flown
from their bodies
leaving eyes black
mouths agape
the howling wind has gathered
their souls
like dust of snow
against a western wall of night
and together they are fading
in a flurry of madness
from us
so that through
the barren landscape
it is all we can do
to stay awake
trekking across
the expanse of the lake
with buckets of ice
for their bodies
frozen in the fishing huts
One
what arms raised against us
empty words with no messages or voices
clouds following through the night until
there are no clouds no sky
slaked thirst pitiless fires scorching
tongues that have lost
all willingness to taste
fallen from their mouths
rolled into balls of dust and blood
lost rivers meandering unbounded
over the minutes hours years
hollow within
we reach into the void
grab the gloved hand
of a faceless companion
remember
we have been here before
Autumn Movement
a leaf in autumn
slips beneath
the lying surface
of a shivering pond
its image suspends there
(geese fly
the pale sky
rolls a cold gray
the drums of autumn
descend below the horizon
if there is a single will
or omniscient thought
once meant to rule
it is no longer of this world)
for a moment
as to inquire who
is here to view
and then before
the solid rule
of winter’s solitude
departs by angle
and dimension
beyond the ken
to another universe
and is gone