OATMEAL BANTER
Light eddying through layers
of overcast gray sky
whispering, simplify.
Willow’s underleaf, lyre-players?
Silver. Copper-gray the color
of this beech’s mammoth shade,
whose granite roots cascade
light (leaf to leaf, & door
to door). Motionless in time-
space, emitting signs
her gray hide underlines
in graphite (stubborn Balaam’s
Hoover-prophecy). The beech,
the book, will not be moved.
Ink trail of raven-dove...
bare gouache, still ground (beseech
thee, spare thy headstrong mule) –
O break the prison mold,
snow-blind brain-cold!
Where father & son meet (fool
with fool) beneath the malachite
green veins, gray matter
of bran (or oatmeal banter).
Strange personal jade wight –
shade-mutter, everlasting
Sheba. Clouds gather
overhead – weather
lit thunder (shackle-blasting).
2.4.16
