Declaration: poem in two voices
Alexander Valley School
I believe in the image
of the wind when the moon
opens to the vast ink of the sky.
I am the voices of the wind
circumscribing the trees.
I am the mind of false shadows.
Once I believed in the ceremonies
around the trees at dusk.
I am the watch devouring time
on the mantelpiece of desire.
I wanted to trace the shadows
of the moon when it sang of death
in the trees at dawn.
Were you the howling night
wolfing down the last crumbs
of the moon, leaving me here?
I believe in the random order
of constellations
calling our destinies forth.
What small mice sleep
in my fingertips?
Once I was the voice of the night
calling you to sleep in my arms,
calling it love, but the fields
swallowed your name.
Alexander Valley School
March 31, 1995