HEART THREAD 255, 256, & 257

255.

Protect this fading image from all the
angry images

this image I made as me

I am the one who thinks myself to be

bad think bad god

to make this double little world of
me and it

make the other be one with me

or one of me or I am none

and where are you in all these trees

leafier this year than ever I’ve
known

after the locust trees blossomed all
spring

the basswoods our lindens blossomed high
summer

their fragrance fills the house all
night when the wind moves.

256.

Once I wanted what would walk through
the door

because the guest is god I am an
atheist

some pollen fallen from another’s
tree

grows an absolutely different kind of
grain

go inside time to its relenting

suppose I were rain along your spine

would your mind turn rain into
someone else

the way not even the weather is
personal

smoky breath of an old friend

the taste in someone else’s mouth a
word is

once you have seen the picture you’ll
never stop

we have to keep talking to the world
to make it go?

257.

The snail shells move in the night
like ship

who knows where the copper is that
breathes the blood

scratch of a pen on an ancient map

here are the islands of the ancestors

listen and you’ll hear your fathers
calling

they are praying for the clouds to
let them through

they have a name for you a permission

survival of the fastest

dark dark the word gouged in wet sand

they were here before you they’re the
fathers

you think at first it is the traffic
or the birds

but deep in your belly you know
better.

ROBERT
KELLY