How vexing to be like a tree plantedto produce sweet apples yet on whosegrafted branches crab apples grow I know it’s unlikely any other orchardhas

She standson her hill’s heightsure to cause sensationa cinematic windsweeps her hair backlike a declaration echoingshore to shorethough you’ve chosenher & want to makeher glistenAt

So many of those I’ve lovedhave paid their last debtto nature My prayers changed nothing though I’d setmy heart on changing God Eyes heavenward I

From my mother blue eyeswatching from the fringeslike a rabbit in long grass From my father thin browsraised & veering with dreams& schemes From my

If when the end has ended & allthat’s been running down begins to rewinduntil each beginning has once more begunimaginethe mountains grown taller more jaggedthe

Batter my boat Wide-spread Watermake your breakers shake my hull& threaten to capsize me Pushmy bow & blow me back attack me broadside with yourwhipping

If tonight were the world’s last nightmight I spend it striking the anvilof rhetoric to prod wanderers tobecome insiders?Might I pester God to open hisdoors

Obscurely yet surely backyard birdssimple & further from corruption withthe wonder of wings call us to praise A sparrow caught & fluttering in themechanism of

How can we stomp it out?all the rude crudesmashed glass & heartachethe grabbing stabbingfussing & fumingSledgehammers just breakfingers Unset boneswon’t heal straight Is it worthall