Wolf and Light
i
brevity slips in the damp puddles of muddy talk
can you see yourself in a word or two
as brevity slips in the damp puddles of muddy talk
fearsome color hung out to dry with the pelts
the black heart softens into the décor as grief dims graft
over the Schwarzhausen countryside in relief
hope tallows in the corner with Pre-war typewriters and musk
the lederhosen and the chef's rye bread tremor
Thüringer Wald in the distance for a moment
recruits and lovers dress in the mud and suck on rocks
to drain the milk from mineral bones
fern and flower absorb each other in blandishments of the banished
a woman snuffs out the candle and wraps herself in hide and dark pelt
prepares her meal alone with buckshot, arsenic and powder
to the Horse Head Nebula calvary in the East she whispers
“leave my love before the land flowers over pebble”
the wolf grows light in his barking and approach
spots a train in the distance rattling its heavy bones
on wobbly wheels more loss than caboose
transport toward a blackened heart of tackled corn and potato rot
the earth asks was any of this right
ii
wilding language bred from the red clay, the fires from the sun’s greed on cotton soil and swamp song and tobacco boogie and church hymn, the death that shines on the tin roof and broken porches late in July, the story that comes before school and dentistry, language taught to tame the currency of life and lost in the bargain between devil and hound, and no better is that more true and binding than in any small town or when you touched my eye lids with your scented tongue peach cobbler twined
with smoke just before the sun rose in the green light as our lives rose darkly before the doors shut
iii
go then
you have loved another life
after all came before you
was it too late a haybale of words buckled on a tractor
for the books that ashen in the air with Birch
for the children, the nightgowns, the leather satchel
and the candle falling in the window near the snow
iv
say what you will, Ah Ma
say what you will
