Landscape Dream #7



This landscape you describe?
the one of green hills broken
by the diligence of farmers
you carry it in your head?
Or does it come to you
onlywhen you are sleeping?
Me, I have chosen to be urban
Chosen to restrict that
to the changing wind of memory
I was born there
in a bucolic place
But it is a fantasy of those
for whom the rural is a destination
An illustration:
As a child I was taken in a boat
out onto the river
Insects buzzed
Small fish rose to the surface
then receded
The boat's motor when it cut out
made the other sounds large
We drifted toward an island
separated from the banks by a channel
Drifted in the shade provided
by a canopy of trees
But soon we noticed them
cutting their S's in the brown water
slipping their dry lengths
over green branches Black
and airless they took things from us
took the small breaths
from our tightening chests
But it was more than that
Their eyes held no light
Absorbed nothing
The snakes hanging from the canopy
dropping
into the water around us
divided the world in half
The vision you have
in your head
is far superior than the actual place
which is not capable of giving you
what you always wanted
because married to the actual place
is the perpetual need for bravery
while memory's dark water is troubled
by a limbless, muscular body
that comes to you
even in your dreams







The Language Exchange
The Campbell Corner Home Page