Tracks of rain and light linger in
the spongy greens of a nature whose
flickering mountainbulging nearer,
ebbing back into the sun
hollowing itself away to hold a lake,
or brown stream rising and falling at the roadside, turning about,
churning itself white, drawing
green in over it,plunging glassy funnels
fall
Andthe other world
the windshield a blunt barrier:
Talk to me. Sh! they would hear us.
the backs of their heads facing us
The stream continues its motion of
a hound running over rough ground.
Trees vanishreappearvanish:
detached dance of gnomesas a talk
dodging remarks, glows and fades.
The unseen power of words
And now that a few of the moves
are clear the first desire is
to fling oneself out at the side into
the other dance, to other music.
Peer Gynt. Rip Van Winkle. Diana.
If I were young I would try a new alignment
alight nimbly from the car, Good-bye!
Childhood companions linked two and two
criss-cross: four, three, two, one.
Back into self, tentacles withdrawn.
Feel about in warm self-flesh.
Since childhood, since childhood!
Childhood is a toad in the garden, a
happy toad. All toads are happy
and belong in gardens. A toad to Diana!
Lean forward. Punch the steerman
behind the ear. Twirl the wheel!
Over the edge! Screams! Crash!
The end. I sit above my head
a little removedor
a thin wash of rain on the roadway
I am never afraid when he is driving,
interposes new direction,
rides us sidewise, unforseen
into the ditch! All threads cut!
Death! Black. The end. The very end
I would sit separate weighing a
small red handful: the dirt of these parts,
sliding mists sheeting the alders
against the touch of fingers creeping
to mine. All stuff of the blind emotions.
Butstirred, the eye seizes
for the first timeThe eye awake!
anything, a dirt bank with green stars
of scrawny weed flattened upon it under
a weight of airFor the first time!
or a yawning depth: Big!
Swim around in it, through it
all directions and find
vitreous seawater stuff
God how I love you!or, as I say,
a plunge into the ditch. The End. I sit
examining my red handful. Balancing
thisin and outagh.
Love you? It's
a fire in the blood, willy-nilly!
It's the sun coming up in the morning.
Ha, but it's the grey moon too, already up
in the morning. You are slow.
Men are not friends where it concerns
a woman? Fighters. Playfellows.
White round thighs! Youth! Sighs!
It's the fillip of novelty. It's
Mountains. Elephants humping along
against the skyindifferent to
light withdrawing its tattered shreds,
worn out with embraces. It's
the fillip of novelty. It's a fire in the blood.
Oh get a flannel shirt], white flannel
or pongee. You'd look so well!
I married you because I liked your nose.
I wanted you! I wanted you
in spite of all they'd say
Rain and light, mountain and rain,
rain and river. Will you love me always?
A car overturned and two crushed bodies
under it.Always! Always!
And the white moon already up.
White. Clean. All the colors.
A good head, backed by the eyeawake!
backed by the emotionsblind
River and mountain, light and rainor
rain, rock, light, treesdivided:
rain-light counter rocks-trees or
trees counter rain-light-rocks or
Myriads of counter processions
crossing and recrossing, regaining
the advantage, buying here, selling there
You are sold cheap everywhere in town!
lingering, touching fingers, withdrawing
gathering forces into blares, hummocks,
peaks and riversrivers meeting rock
I wish that you were lying there dead
and I sitting here beside you.
It's the grey moonover and over.
It's the clay of these parts.