(Using these words: drawing, brunt, fertile, enthusiast, Hercules, elite, froth, sundered, question, shouldered, thigh, simple, stones)
The Map
The drawing by the bed led to the tree,
a trail stained by stones, pine needles, and the maroon
thorns of honey locust, cicadas churning up their quarrels
in the hot air of noon, wads of spit speckling the grass,
a froth formed by spiders to protect their young eggs.
Hot breath cradles the earth, trickles of sweat parading the
veranda of my thigh as I crouch to slip the fertile soil between my
fingers, a cooling relief, the earth an enthusiast of compassion
shouldered by a thick smog of pale yellow air, my body
the brunt of the dance between earth and sun.
Even in the elite solitude, the Hercules-club is a strange creature,
formations of cone-like growth rise like freckles across
the smooth trunk, tiny pairs of thorns protect buds, and yet it is
just a tree, just a collection of deciduous leaves, a home to
birds cascading through the limbs, squirrels screeching in mis-step
and the tackle with thorns, a lonely sway in the wind, a sail.
Curious, my knife burrows through bark and pulls
from the soft, sundered wood, a taste, a wound to heal a wound, a bitter
punch on my tongue before my entire mouth goes numb.
I question the reasons for nature to be compassionate,
turn inward in my simple mind and discover,
even in the elite solitude, I am a strange creature
tarnished by language,. freckled by structures of grief, wonder, pride,
driven by hope into the very depths of madness as
the earth begs me to listen, listen, listen.
Oleacae, this is so beautiful. I like how you draw nature's lush details and then question nature's compassion..I like 'my body the brunt of dance between earth and sun'.
ReplyDeleteThe ending is thoughtfully drawn, 'I am a strange creature tarnished by language....I think you could lose 'you are home' and just stop and 'listen, listen listen'.
ahhh, beloved - the line beginning "yet it is just a tree".... such a grand awakening line... almost like a whisper. Love it.
ReplyDeleteThis is beautifully done. I am amazed at where these words have taken you.
ReplyDeleteThis is wonderfully, lushly, and patiently imagined, but goes beyond description with its meditative self-awareness.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. I love "trickles of sweat parading the / veranda of my thigh"
ReplyDeleteWow. I was caught by "cicadas churning up their quarrels/in the hot air of noon", " my body/
ReplyDeletethe brunt of the dance between earth and sun", and your final line ("the earth begs me to listen, listen, listen"). This speaks to me as a contrast of us as creatures of reason and loudness with nature in its most seemingly irrational and silent state. Were that we would seek to understand rather than dominate.
Well done.
-Nicole