Wake Widening Astern                                                

 Keel of Bright Words

                       (for Karen Wedeles)

                1

White water at wing-tip

gulls flying before bow-sprit

white water at wing-tip

gulls crying before storms

clear light for arriving

eagles soaring     far seeing

empty fish pans     empty wallets

high hulls      hollow sounding

        so disconsolate

        pebbles skipped like a discus

        sink beneath the waves

        courage

        don't weep

        though for a million reasons

approach me again

approach me once more in your tangles

       

        wild & wantonly

        wound & woven

        confusion come seeking me

with goat bells jangling

hooves running before me

into your mysteries, secrets safeguarded

rapt in a furled wing.

                2

in the foothills

hooves sinking in loam

amid fallen oranges...

& amid another grove

hooves pressed leaves

twigs grass into the loam

& the loam sprang back...

trying to avoid that grove

but she always confronted me

& weakening I stumbled

into the impress the loam had prepared

hooves lightly on my bones

skin dried by sun

untouched avoided as carrion

& always she was coming toward me

but she did not come straightway

but let me hear she was approaching

while skin swollen

flesh leaving the bone

senses slowed to the rhythm of the grove

which knew seasons and not days

& always she approached me

but she did not come

& I knew she would not

& I could not go or stay

knowing and not knowing

for a moment

I was happy

Andalusia, Spain, February 1970

© Dick Russell, 2013