i.
Summer thunder come rumbling.
What can I touch
that will not eat my hand.
ii.
(Can you imagine as you walk the shore
and collect vertebrae and jaw
given by a heaving ocean –
then classify precisely this find –
Can you imagine communities
of the small bones of children
warmed and held by the sand)
bring flowers
iii.
I want to touch the healer’s heart
be still
And ride its slow contraction in
iv.
Is this the mother
Whose breasts I swallow?
Am I the daughter saying
Old woman, bless me.
v.
Do not despair, poet!
When the arms carry you across
Part of you will fall into the fire.