And By That the Earth Was Made

How empty Grandma's bench
when sitting like a man
knees apart
and arms spread crucified

But how warm her embrace
in wood aged with rain and solemn air
does lay across
and baby us sweetly.

Voices curl, coddle
against all odds
doubt
unfolds toward such slight
a buzz

streetlamps again graze
with warming touch
comfort

and soften bark, bathing for that second
moon's glow
embrace
rest now a worn and wrinkled bosom

perfumed tobacco
testing, unyielding
coyly it tastes on my tongue
licking those moist lips
mourning

neighbors sleep
except one sound
a door opening, shut
and rushes

hastily washing up to bed
with a wife--

like my mother--
snoring forgotten on her pillow plump
a dog whimpers wanting

rolling for "mother" as well
as any human boy.

How very awake we are
the Moon and I
with dew-- early morning yet

betwixt these my bare toes
which slide then run
through yards and yards of wet grass

for this is morning.
And this same Moon never will pass her
brilliant crux along the stars

her path is never to see the Sun
peeking beyond our shared horizon

but remains-- banished
and beautiful
in a way

excepting my sister's creaking step
as her own
plunged into every new thing
and in so, nothing-- not even illusion

as I watch the learned smoke
wryly let the wind
do all its work
and carry obligingly it
aloft-- blurring the streetlamp
alone.

How very awake.
How very, very awake.
Alive, thank God

at last

some peace before lighted
day breaks through
and curtains turn blue and grey

through my arms
my legs
my thighs, all aching for another routine
of good labor, strong

It will
run swiftly, sunlight,
reaching into this
our bony earth

groping deep the ground
to raise up another helpless seed
for tree-- Beech, emboldened

thinking, yea, believing

"now is it my turn
to shine face among the Great"

until the Course runs past
and a withered leaf
proves to be the last,

gently falling away
into savory autumn--

for saintly winter is do.
And I am still but a child.

Rumbling, the truck
a hearse from Dawn

alive just for now
but Now forever

until that same grand Equalizer comes
and claims me as his own.