April 18, 2005

Tonight at dusk

Another poem for . My students from rural areas especially love this one. You will have to imagine that some of the lines are indented. I don't know how to make them so.

Cattail Wind

Go to the meadow behind Braim's pond
when the day moves slow into night

Let the laughter of those
who live by comparisons
lift from you like the mist
now rising from the alders

The cattail wind feathers the evening
shadows coalesce in the sky
beyond Orion's slanted belt
cold fireflies for time
old messages for your eyes

If you wait long enough
two things will come

the deer, eyes glowing
with the valleys of the moon

the dawn, uneven as
the edge of wind-brushed feathers

They will touch your face
leave you
changed

This is no warning
it is a map

Joseph Bruchac

1 comment:

Pilgrim/Heretic said...

ooooooo, nice.