I have slept in the breathing of your valley
I have slept in the breathing of your valley
purling over meadow and hill
airborne frisky like milkweed seeds
$100 bill wishes more than willing to forgo purposeless weeping
for wildflowers
greenhouse gassed like Jews in Auschwitz
great horned owls hooting icy clarity
to January moonlight
whowhowhoooOOOOooooooooooooo are you
with yesterday’s newspapers wrapped around your feet
and your fashionable sensibilities
to pretend you need to stay warm
and know how it feels to be homeless possessionless and free
like a temporary Achilles
but I have to tell you
I don’t need to escape being the victim
by making you suffer any rhapsody
that whitewashes steering wheels like Tom Sawyer knuckles
so let’s do what we’re supposed to do here
for love and endearment
devote our robin’s egg blue karma
to protect the family of living things
why else would I invite you to join this simple gathering
of prodigal gods
Stephen A. Rozwenc lives in Haydenville, MA. He has published a collection of poems, The Fourth Turning, and a chapbook, Grass Hill. The chapbook’s costs were funded by a Massachusetts Arts Council Grant. A third collection will be published in the winter of 2009. His new poems have recently appeared in “Philadelphia Poets”, “Equinox”, “The Whole In The Doughnut”, “Fractals”, www.poetswest.com, www.Words-myth.com, “Spoken War”, Daily Hampshire Gazette (circulation 13,000). He has recorded a poetry CD, “Improvisations”, with Thomas Erwin, jazz keyboardist, which improvises poetry to spontaneous music.
Poet’s mission statement: I consider poetry to be the expression of my intimate connection with all living things, the beauty of their existence and my reverence for it.