Even now the ground is slowly shifting
beneath your feet. Even now
zones of weakness are building
behind your back, ready to crack
into fractures. Even now pressures
may exceed the power of rocks
to resist. Think of it:
thousands of faults lace this region.
You live inside a ring of fire
where walls can loom up overnight.
Forces in this landscape
are trying to rearrange your world.
You stand here feeling
you can control nothing,
at any second it is you
who may be heaved up,
and broken.

I have Tasted the Apple,
©1996 BOA Editions, Ltd.

FOOTLOOSE

Like-it-or-not--
my ghetto--,
and I haven't budged in ages.

I used to take what I needed
and move on.
I used to oil the coat

of my horses for a quick sale
but how I fiddle
with odometers--

you get it?
I sit cross-legged
and smoke

while I read the cards.
You'd be surpeised who
believes them.

Behind me,
the great flat field
where what matters is view,

thousands of hills,
and beyond, mountains,
sea to the west.

But just this one room
I've settled into,
ceiling pressing low

on my otherness,
my rug and mattress,
my inkling of me.

©-- Field, Oberlin College