Garden Song
row this garden
mulch it
make it inch
these seeds
below the rain
stones dream
to own time
grain, nature’s body
music, the land
your season a prayer
[chorus]
mother, give old crow
eyes as free as
[chorus]
Ox of Ra
out of morning
an evening
maybe the sun
is rain to see
out of day
maybe some corner, waiting
look through other eyes
on other days
what to do—
it’s all a dream
your dead land
tired and broken, your tongue
what you do
will pain
believe the wind
in the window, like a moth
Ox of Ra,
believe it
o long time, be
a short time
O Low Way, Away
they opened a place
out of a place
away away
away
I aimed to feed
a mule the place
away away
away
it pigs and crops
that down road
o low way
away
so green my life
my scalloped town
away away
away
alone the wind
corners wind with wind
away
close to dust I hear
talking in the air
away away
away
always close
to never, away
I die around
the sky, away
away away
away
Deportees
in the dumps
they border
their money
again
goodbye my names—
when will you be my own?
father made fruit trees
till they died
some wanted out and
they chase us like thieves
your hills and
your plains died
and we died
both died
fire over our friends
like leaves
if we grow big
our good
leaves no names
Land O Land
the new stream,
that high end-
less sky below
I followed the sands
of deserts, around me
a voice was made
the sun fields clouds
lifting this land
a sign on the sign
said nothing and
the shadow of relief
stood hungry, asking
nobody walking
nobody living
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