Making Gold

MAKING GOLD


Midnight came and stayed. Sappho
kissed me
lightly on the corner of my mouth
I touched her hip it was enough
to get the brightness started.
He is bright, they said. Grandfather
went to Australia they said,
grandfather found gold.
He set to work to find the gold
around the house.
He was bright, he looked for it,
either it was not so bright and did not gleam
and so could not be found or
it was bright as books say but was not there,
no gold, no grandfather, no home.
So he dug beneath the mulberry tree out front
and under the hydrangea in the garden
till they said to him Stop digging
the War has begun
we need all the earth for Trenches
and he was afraid.
He was not bright enough to know yet
that adults always lie,
pay no attention to what they say,
never rely on them, they are buried
in their own ground,
he was not bright enough yet to dig them up,
dig them out of their own dirt
so he believed them and stopped digging.
Deep below the mulberry tree
the gold still is gleaming
dreaming of daylight,
dreaming of war,
Sappho kissed every metal too,
lightly at the corner of her mouth
while her lips pronounced its name,
Chrysea I love you she said
and I answered that is not my name
I love you too.


Robert Kelly

Posted over on Charlotte Mandell

from MAY DAY: Poems 2003-2005