This Verse

Long before my people or yours
swam through the great drowning
a whole other world
warmed to the same sun daily
but lives now only in imagination

There in the store I saw so much
I never need to own or touch
but could only feel naked

Your no
frees me for the next
great yes

Even a beautiful city
becomes claustrophobic
this great flow of busyness
leaves me longing
for your great space

As a child I pressed patterns
tanned hide yielded
weilded bright metal
to make flowers bloom
on what remained
of a once mighty beast

Hotel lobby talk
greater than small but ever
moving on from here

Stop and bless the good earth greening
every tender shoot blinking
and petal waving
assure you of the place set
the great welcome

Here is how we turn
an outgrown past into this
comforting present

Fold me once again
upon myself until I
find my new true form

The novel you write
word upon word
builds a tower
from the red earth
to a breathless sky