Come freighted heart, within this port,
Bring all your bee-collected sweet,
The savor of a liberal night,
The crown of Columbine-still wet,
The muse of days.
-Carolyn Kizer...

Take me like life to your lips,
Pull me into your deluge.

Take me like sustenance;
Like mud,
Let me cover your body!

Hide me away in your hot domains,
Carry me with you
As soil from your homeland.

In this way we will roam the bloody world
Peppering its brown hills
With our seed.

Fill the dusty reaches with our sweat,

Grind down mountains
To dust
With elbows,

With our toes,
Raising up mountains
Where there were none.

J.P. Burnside
americanchamps@yahoo.com
all rights reserved by J.P.Burnside
3.6.2003
Buffalo Wolf Press, 2003