REVIEWSOne Bird Falling
WHERE AIR GROWS THIN
small girl
in red overalls
high
in a chestnut tree
listening to bird song
and intimate
with bark
look up through branches
to the lacework
of sky
see if
in the great void
where air
grows thin
the woman
of your future
remembers you
Poem by CB Follett from "One Bird Falling."
HORSES OF PAIN
To ride on horses of pain and remembering,
where fires ignite the rivers
and soldiers with lamp-blacked boots
thunder on cobbles;
to ride to the place of no escape
where the green flash is as quick
as a shot to the head,
where crops lie flattened
and a woman keens by a broken wall,
where rib-latticed dogs scavenge
and a bucket of water is worth more than gold.
Along the street where markets stood
pools the rust of yesterday's blood.
To live like this or die without warning,
to wonder when your son will come home,
how your daughter can be kept hidden
as your house falls in; donkeys run toward the hills
and a youth with burning eyes wears
a girdle that will blow him into the stars;
where mouths pucker but no spit comes
and the peach tree withers
that once was the bounty of summer.
Poem by CB Follett from "One Bird Falling."