Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Uprise

I woke in a field
watching a goat
eat the farmer's hay

A flower sat out all night,
a wrinkled leaf
turning its page at dawn

A parade moves forward
fleeing south through tunnels, free
they burrow underground

Their fate above their heads,
a heart below glimmer
I watch them run and sing a song, free

In the shade, the notes are dull
Evening dusk and morning day
soon, the taste of home will fade

They stand tall on their feet
where land is promised,
indentured spirits melt in the sun

The leaf has veins,
blood and water and spider
I feel them full of rain

The smell of sweat drips from their strength
their homes burned, hope tangled
tarred and feathered

In this field
the sun is warm,
dandelions will flower

A pod of hundreds of seeds
the white are hair,
the brown, seeds in the middle

They hold sails to carry them far
The goats have moved on to grass
I blow the seeds away in the wind

TWW: feel, shade, tangle

25 comments:

  1. i love dandelions...and blowing them in the wind...interesting where your mind turns as you sit in the field watching the goats...a little surreal and makes me wonder at that parade and the burning of houses...life refugees...

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    1. I wrote this after seeing Mississippi Burning. The parade and the underground burrowing like safe houses and the underground railroad. And the dandelion pods, blowing the seeds like making a wish and setting people free.

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  2. I liked the rhythm, and the way your thots and words floated around....

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  3. The seeds will grow from your blow and such a great scene, captured oh so green

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    1. Thanks Pat! They've traveled along a road, set free, reclaiming what is owed. :)

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  4. I also love the scene of the goats, wonder at the parade burrowing underground. Love the vivid images all through this and also love blowing the seeds off dandelions (and making a wish)
    Another very lovely write by you.

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  5. Seeds start something new..i also like the use of the word glimmer...i cast my eye to your profile and wondered if glimmer was another kind of glow..jae

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    1. Yes, I like glimmer too, like a trail of light or hope. :)

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  6. One of life's pleasures is to observe nature at work. To be amazed at ants industry only to be nipped for my laziness and to weep over the death of a bloom who casts its petals off in amazement that I haven't noticed other buds forming or even seen the lizard slowly shaking his head that I too am not fetching my dinner. I love the way you effortless take us into the natural world with words to lure us into the rhythm of life.

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    1. It's the observation of raw human nature, not so gentle, but there is hope in the eye of a child who lives in serenity. Thank you for casting on the rhythm.

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  7. Something links the "They" in stanzas 3, 4, and 6, but I am not sure what if not ants--rabbits? Roots? Field mice? But maybe these are citizen's underground armies, an uprising of a once enslaved people or migrant workers looking for land. The dandelions blooming, the milkweed pods split to show entrapped hair and brown seeds, and here the goats eat grass instead of hay, and the awakened "I" blows the seeds "away in the wind." We play tiny parts in the dramas of the day.

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    1. Susan, you read right into it. Her thoughts were of enslaved people. Where she sits on the other side of oppression there is always light, so her thoughts are hopeful, as a wish in the wind. I love the way you have read this. :)

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  8. you have painted a pastoral picture full of nature
    and her beauty. thank you.

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  9. you've painted a beautiful picture with your words.

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  10. beautiful poem with beautiful pic

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