Poem

Selfsame Song

 

When I chew the bread with my molars, pull my tongue back,

I know the warbler’s song of a night jaunt in which I tarry

My brothers’s piece, though the bread I chew is no holy bread

    I tarry his piece only, it is

        When my teeth break the bread

            I hear this voice I know of angels

                Awake in St.Teresa

 

When I chew the bread with my molars, I tarry my brother

To be my brother, that he might taste the crumbs the way

That waves, turtles, window taste the wafer. When I chew

    The bread with my molars, it is

        My brother’s still small chirp

             To where I linger toward him, and away,

                   Singing, laughing, always

 

Disappearing, always music. When I sigh, I sigh backward

In the same tide of my swallow, gasp like moon drawn tortoise

Clamor back into my chest. I know, I know, I need not wait,

    Waves break in the window when

        The window moves. I will meet you

            Right there, right here. I’ll give these

                 Crumbs that I have. There is

 

No song save that moon song of warbler. This music, my brother,

Gasp like moon drawn tortoise searching off ahead of me,

Salt smell of that vast gulf. Goodbye gasp, goodbye bread

    Teeth that are my bridle

        For a fortune of crumbs, I squander

            Music of beach vagrants, lifting

                From our wakeing shore.