How to Hear

What I want is:

the next poem I read to show me the water’s face,
the mouth of the wind roaring below the canyons

the tide flats to hold bear tracks and the hieroglyphics
of land crabs, shivering birds

my friend who passed through the delicate fabric of death
to visit me in a dream and tell me what to do

to be smacked in the ears with the burrrrrr of hummingbirds
and the silken moans of doves

for each season to resemble Spring and for each Spring
to be louder in its promises

for the stammer and palsy of  love to find us all
wherever we end up

I know you are wondering why I deserve these things.
I, who have stolen things that only I thought needed stealing
and encouraged stars to burst like fireworks,
how could I expect answers?

 

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Martina Reisz Newberry’s books are Never Completely Awake (due out in 2016 from Deerbrook Editions), Where It Goes (Deerbrook Editions), Learning By Rote (Deerbrook Editions), Not Untrue & Not Unkind (Arabesques Press), Running Like A Woman With Her Hair On Fire (Red Hen Press), Lima Beans And City Chicken: Memories Of The Open Hearth (E.P. Dutton &Co)