Call it poor hygiene—
in years. Just take a sniff, it still smells
of the under-parts of horse.
Nor have time and weather been its friends.
Cobwebs dawdle in corners,
the first storm of the season waits
in ambush—termination dust.
Don't buy this place, just let it be.
In every warping board and rusty nail
is a secret text
the land writes mysteriously.
___________________
BOUND FOR MARKET
The piglet on the young girl's lap
sits thinking as she takes her nap,
and counts crosses by the road
where travelers laid down their load.
Humans wonder at each cross.
Pork chops know that life is loss.
The piglet on the young girl's lap
sits thinking as she takes her nap.
___________________
USED-TO-BE HOMESTEAD
—Taylor Graham
As sunlight dwindles in the west
the hawk recalls an oak-tree nest.
Oaks are all uprooted now.
No good-mornings, calf to cow.
Arthritic in every beam,
the old barn shudders in dream
as sunlight dwindles in the west.
The hawk recalls an oak-tree nest.
—Taylor Graham
Our trickster puppy, slipping out the door
shadowing or shall we call it
chasing sheep of late September?
Not a fleecy cloud in blue;
the sky so noncommittal,
like ancient gods named Thor or Loki.
What can we count on
when there's scratching at the door?
What can we count on?
Like ancient gods named Thor or Loki,
the sky so noncommittal—
not a fleecy cloud in blue
chasing sheep of late September
shadowing. Or shall we call it
our trickster puppy slipping out the door?
__________________
BECOME THE CHANGE
—Taylor Graham
Here we've all come together,
poets with words to change the world
for good. And here you are
out-of-the-blue yelling at that
girl—for what? Her words. Were they
too soft or subtle for you?
Not enough tinder-spark, or smoke?
No explosion, riot, blowing
the old bad world to smithereens?
She's walking away now,
her words packed carefully back
into the satchel of her mind,
ready for the winds of change
to carry beyond
anywhere your yelling could reach.
THE WORK OF THE WEAVERS
A length of line, a knot, a word. With ancient
craft, she weaves a net to hold our night-sky
starry in its place: Arcturus, Sadr's swan-space.
Through a loom's warp, the second
shuttles her spindled yarn—live, grazing sheep
for fleece; an old shepherd-dog (the woof).
The third—he weaves
a frock of all this, so finely-textured of history,
roses, star-spume rivers over rock.
Sometimes, one will leave the loom
unattended. With a key-tap, another of the three
sneaks into the room
and shifts the pattern: a slight
switch in color-scheme, image, theme—as any
true weave requires one small glitch,
a nick, a crevice to let sky's-
light shine through; a loose end, half-rhyme,
fingerhold for metaphor, a farther flight.
You can also see Taylor Graham tonight at Poetry Off-the-Shelves, a monthly read-around that takes place in Placerville. This is a busy night in area poetry, with Poetry Off-the-Shelves, Poetry With Legs at Shine Cafe (featuring Laverne Frith and Dale Pendell), and Verse on the Vine. You'll have to make a choice, but you can't lose either way with our fine area poetry! As always, see the blue board at the right for all the details.
Brother of flame
remembers you
to mourn the past,
sister of fire
puts a wreath
for the future for us
on an unknown field
called poetry.