Collected Poems

it may weave in air, where

it must return for safety

and renewal of strength. Take care

then, mother's son, lest you become

a dancer disinherited in mid-dance

hanging a lame foot in air like the hen

in a strange unfamiliar compound. Pray

protect this patrimony to which

you must return when the song

is finished and the dancers disperse;

remember also your children

for they in their time will want

a place for their feet when

they come of age and the dance

of the future is born

for them.

NON-commitment

Hurrah! to them who do nothing

see nothing feel nothing whose

hearts are fitted with prudence

like a diaphragm across

womb's beckoning doorway to bar

the scandal of seminal rage. I'm

told the owl too wears wisdom

in a ring of defense round

each vulnerable eye securing it fast

against the darts of sight. Long ago

in the Middle East Pontius Pilate

openly washed involvement off his

white hands and became famous. (Of all