3 Poems

Painting by M.J. Ranum


3 poems

I

He sees her urgent face.
.
Lakes folded into the palm of the hills.
.
Large twolegged passersby.
.
Sky gods
earth gods
gods of the air
legions of angels.
.
In the land
where everyone does everything backwards.

II

Imagine the moon between its arms
like the sky, or
the down on a woman’s legs. There’s
a cactus here, a kind of
prickly pear with down where the spines should be.
Hand
full of tiny spines.

III

The black spot on the dove’s neck.
The ill-favored son of the loveliest of men.
The tough lyricist
the desert dancer
barefoot among the cactus.
.
Quiet. Slow.
Serpent-knowledge in the hollows of rocks.


Mark Weiss

Posted over on Poems & Poetics