QUOTE : SPRING POEM<br /><br />It is spring, my decision, the earth<br />ferments like rising bread<br />or refuse, we are burning<br />last year's weeds, the smoke<br />flares from the road, the clumped stalks<br />glow like sluggish phoenixes / it wasn't<br />only my fault / birdsongs burst from<br />the feathered pods of their bodies, dandelions<br />whirl their blades upwards, from beneath<br />this decaying board a snake<br />sidewinds, chained hide<br />smelling of reptile sex / the hens<br />roll in the dust, squinting with bliss, frogbodies<br />bloat like bladders, contract, string<br />the pond with living jelly<br />eyes, can I be this<br />ruthless? I plunge<br />my hands and arms into the dirt,<br />swim among stones and cutworms,<br />come up rank as a fox,<br /><br />restless. Nights, while seedlings<br />dig near my head<br /><br />I dream of reconciliations<br />with those I have hurt<br />unbearably, we move still<br />touching over the greening fields, the future<br />wounds folded like seeds<br />in our tender fingers, days<br />I go for vicious walks past the charred<br />roadbed over the bashed stubble<br />admiring the view, avoiding<br />those I have not hurt<br /><br />yet, apocalypse coiled in my tongue,<br />it is spring, I am searching<br />for the word:<br />finished<br />finished<br /><br />so I can begin over<br />again, some year<br />I will take this word too far.