Re-entry
Dan Raphael
how do i turn my street into a stream
& the schoolyard across into a marsh
my house would be way smaller & could i be
that rare mammal or bird who writes & remembers
scent trails in journals of dust & mud
pictograms based on the interaction of reeds, rain & clouds
the lifetime from naked branch to naked branch
bud-leaf-flower-fruit
some people get brighter colors as they age
some of us are conifers who barely change clothes
knock off one limb & three more take its place
those who lose their leader early on grow off focus, indecisive
or the hearty limb with a bad break in its past
the patient process of turning asphalt into topsoil
returning a shopping center to the meadow it had been
if the dam's been here long enough the river who returns
will be a wild child
~~~~~
Dan Raphael is active in the Northwest as a poet, performer, publisher and reading host. Current poems appear in Caliban, Make it True, Cordite, Indefinite Space and Tip of the Knife. His book Everyone in this Movie Gets Paid is forthcoming from Last Word Press.