Here is a sample poem from those I read at this reading last Saturday:

 

Specters of The Ghosts We Once Were

 

Picture a family of friends

in a tree

We spread out

among the branches

and sit down

and let our legs hang

above water

as if walking

on air

 

One will wear a hat

and keep the leaves from his hair

One will strip down

to his waist

and feel the wind

wrap itself

around his chest

speak

to his skin

 

Another

will hold hands with a girl

and the two

will make the branches sway

with the talk

of their love

 

Still one

will look off

across the water

thinking of the time

when light flowed back

over the earth

and washed the corners

of the winds dry

 

He thinks

of the far-off time

when his forefathers

slept cradled up here

flowers

refreshing the wild scent

of beasts

patrolling

down below

the footpad

on blown leaf

in the darkness

the moon

peering down

through mottled shadow

screech

of night owl

and whimper

of a dying mouse

 

The night

keeps its secrets

in the branches of our lives

where the eternal sea of the womb

swirls

in milky currents

with the sigh

of south winds

It wets to the touch

with the mist of the ground fog

It carries the specters

of the ghosts

we once were

that people

our dreams

 

A question

arises with the moon

and stretches across the sky

it will go down

with the dawn

when our memories

die