Thoughts While Listening to the Black Poet

What a gift I have been given,

a life with no particular history:

the space to consider birds and flowers,

to ponder the stars and origins,

with no need to think of tribes,

nor themes imported from the past.

There’s no stigma I must face,

nothing like the slap of the daily insult,

or some afternoon when a mob gathers

with death on the agenda;

no heritage I dare not ignore,

the Peculiar Institution or the deadly ships--

nothing I can’t refuse to remember,

nor any need to embrace truths

which feel like grasping nettles.

What I have is a gift to be free:

free to experience late summer primrose

and the magic of a red moon,

but it only invites the question:

how did I come to deserve this?  

Shrinking

Thanks to the working of the ages,

I am now three inches shorter,

almost a wisp of my former body;

but not, I hope, smaller in my being,

or losing the lovely imaginings

of the words which assault me

each day and demand their page.

Old fingers and their pencil still move

through the loops of cursive,

a hand moving across the page,

a magic of remembered motions

turned into letters learned long ago

that make those words,

which still seem to serve me well,

to carry the weight and dimensions

of what must be said.

We Think About Pets

(For Maya and Leo Toyokawa)

If you want to have a pet:

think of all the critters you could get!

You might choose a dog or a cat,

but you would surely not care for a bat.

Some have yearned for a kangaroo--

but I think they’re best in a zoo,

and should someone give you a yak,

I bet you would send it back!

Your mom had a guinea pig

(they look like they’re wearing a wig),

and perhaps you would like an eagle--

but they are fierce-- unlike a beagle!

So,  if all of this seems to much--
just stick with that doggy named Dutch!

September 24: We Meet a Snake

On our walk near the river,

my dog and I met a snake

who paid us no attention,

a being entirely unconcerned

as it flicked that arrow of a tongue,

content to gather in the sun;

and likewise we, on this early fall day,

grateful for light and warmth

beside sunflowers in bloom,

for one more day before the dark,

and then, we all agreed

(serpent, flower, dog and man)

that nothing had changed,

that there had been no equinox.