the house of dreams and poppies

 

Dense with the wreckage of my kind, my home

in the city went bad. It ground my bones

and spat me back to first things (God’s own

neighborhood), to this holy pleasure dome

and all its earthship amplitude. Alone,

just a poor cat-feeding tender of plants . . .

even so, I get rich on your aromas,

navigate your milky way, and dance

your medicine garden ballet . . . while high

above the herbs and mirrors, buzzards ride

a slow, rising coil of sun-kindled air,

lazing in their dignity, with no plan

you can ever know — just because they’re here

and most of all, I think, because they can.

 

 

© Michael Fleming

Cazadero, California

August 1998

 

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