[We are the knife people . . .]
We are the knife people, iron men, coat people
and he-lands-sailing.
Souse eaters, house makers, husbands
of kine and goat and swine, farm builders
and keepers of kettle and scummer, word
scratchers, corn stealers and bad sleepers.
As if towns could build themselves.
As if stumps jumped from the ground or
flesh of beasts fell into trenchers.
As if paradise prevailed on earth.
To come to rich moulds and lush plantings,
long-necked trees and tongues of land,
to redd the wild for the unborn.
To reck not the peril.
Suffering snakes that may fly, wolves
that may ravish. Kingdom
of sachem and sagamore.
Kingdom of corn and thorny promise.
To satisfy our appetite of spirit,
our thirst of property.
To seek not the opera of war but
belittled by the possibilities
to stand silenced by the task before us—
these be my sudden and undigested thoughts.
Copyright Credit: John Spaulding, “[We are the knife people . . .]” from Walking in Stone. Copyright © 1989 by John Spaulding. Reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press.
Source: Walking in Stone (Wesleyan University Press, 1989)