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High Walls and other poems

Duane Locke

A Hot January

First publication: April 2000

http://badosa.com/p052

HIGH WALLS

Flabbergasted by the guests, my enemies,

The enemies have keys to the gate.

I crawled here to see the sea,

No one can see the sea unless behind these high walls.

I wade into the shallows, find sea horses,

A fish, vermilion, swims through dark green seaweed.

I watch waves leap back and forth,

I look back over my shoulder to see high walls.

ALONE WITH WINE ON THE GULF

The gulf goes towards us,

Then goes away,

Leaves from its depths, a bouquet,

Gold, globular, berries between

Gold leaves on a golden stem,

Seaweed speckled with sand,

Each grain has known

The mysteries of the gulf’s bottom.

I gaze at the grains, see through their skin.

In the location where human beings have hearts,

The sand grain has an alphabet of lightning flashes,

Flashes that came from the earth’s center, not the sky.

I read the sentences made out of fire.

OAKS

Oaks, your acorns fall on my lonely hands,

Reveal to me how much I want to be touched,

If only touched by a falling acorn.

I lean against bark, its hands touches my neck.

I watch catkins, blackbirds on catkins,

The blackbirds make catkins lean, touch each other.

Watching reeds touch, I recall touching

Your Slavic-Teutonic body in Venice, Florence, Milan.

I’m not yet in a coffin, but sitting alone with desires.

I look around, see a barefoot girl on a bench

Reading a book. Her is well coifured,

Not wild like your Slavic Teutonic blonde hair.

I’ll leave soon, departing from the acorn touch

On my lonely skin. But I won’t miss the acorns

As much, Gianna, as I miss your touch.

MEANING

To make clear things dark

Is to find her bright hair and dark body.

Her hair falls like rain down to the ground,

Soaks in

To touch underground stars.

I touch her hair,

Feel the voices of the stars underground

Enter my fingers.

Finally, life has a meaning.

ADMIRATION

The ring nose

Of the ox

And a wedding ring

Stared

At each other’s roundness.

Their creator boasted about his skill

To control the world.