Passage

Ask him at four

the con man with the fancy herb

whether the shirt will still fit

the grain still stream millward

the girl still hold her balance

on the fraying rope

How to hold and frame

no, see see see

as if for the first time

the raw unpolished yellow skin

of the door the warm brick skin

of the terrace the downy cream floor

You must be alert

to coffee stain and mosquito bite

red cloud of panic on the inner arm

the river’s pulse beating in the brain

its gilded fish bursting the weir of sleep

source forgotten mouth unknown

upstream and downstream braided

one current from which the wounded dolphin leaps

slipping from this skin of water to the next

finding balance on a wave

it’s you and me both

asking who’s really native in passage