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The Walnut-Cracking Machine
80 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2010
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January 18, 2022
the spring he died
my grandfather planted corn and peas
in a garden he dug within the cement foundation
of the last of the disappearing barns
there's a photograph
one seed at rest
in the air between
his hand and the furrow
he made with the heel of his boot
one seed between earth
and his cupped hand
* * *
i discovered an owl pellet
at the base of the white pine
the greyest thing
i have ever seen
the grey
of solid dust
inside i found
the femur of a small animal
its skull
teeth
tiny claws
strange
i remembered it
as heavy to my friend
when in fact
it was far lighter
in my hand
than i had expected
* * *
i didn't support the treaty of Versailles didn't load the slave
ship off the gold coast was neither for not against the confederates
in the civil war i have no ships bombs or guns the day i was born
airplanes full of people flew over a sea a continent the last circus
creaked through town when i was twenty-eight and nets came up
heavy with cod off the grand banks the heartbeat of ages before me
was the rosy sun rising and setting the luminous eye of the moon
winking and blinking and so it will be in ages to come
i was not yet conceived when the ovens of treblinka consumed
the flesh of jews when the wide ravines of latvian towns were filled
with murdered mothers fathers their children not yet born when
the bombs exploded over hiroshima and nagasaki later that same
century jane and i made pine needle salad served fern frond fish
and stone potatoes on cracked 78 records our home a broken-
down boat atop grassy waves always cresting never breaking
and we rode wild green horses down the lane as far as the mud
daubers and back
one day their prickly rumps transmogrified into
the dropping boughs of Norway spruce stones became stones
potatoes potatoes
at the dawning
as they say of the new millennium it's nine o'clock i stand
before a room full of children arranged in rows sing o canada
alone why won't you sing i ask the music is too high or too low
they say they are shy i cannot make them sing i teach them
the difference between colons and semi-colons tell them if you
write a letter to the prime minister he will answer you don't
need a stamp i explain this history is a story somebody makes
up we mustn't call them Indians
o where do you come from sadie
and taylor where are you going do you have a plan jordan do you
believe you will know when something is right and wrong and sameera
my love will you eat the flesh of the stories or my dears my dears will
you just nod off to sleep
my grandfather planted corn and peas
in a garden he dug within the cement foundation
of the last of the disappearing barns
there's a photograph
one seed at rest
in the air between
his hand and the furrow
he made with the heel of his boot
one seed between earth
and his cupped hand
- between, pg. 31
* * *
i discovered an owl pellet
at the base of the white pine
the greyest thing
i have ever seen
the grey
of solid dust
inside i found
the femur of a small animal
its skull
teeth
tiny claws
strange
i remembered it
as heavy to my friend
when in fact
it was far lighter
in my hand
than i had expected
- small poem, pg. 44
* * *
i didn't support the treaty of Versailles didn't load the slave
ship off the gold coast was neither for not against the confederates
in the civil war i have no ships bombs or guns the day i was born
airplanes full of people flew over a sea a continent the last circus
creaked through town when i was twenty-eight and nets came up
heavy with cod off the grand banks the heartbeat of ages before me
was the rosy sun rising and setting the luminous eye of the moon
winking and blinking and so it will be in ages to come
i was not yet conceived when the ovens of treblinka consumed
the flesh of jews when the wide ravines of latvian towns were filled
with murdered mothers fathers their children not yet born when
the bombs exploded over hiroshima and nagasaki later that same
century jane and i made pine needle salad served fern frond fish
and stone potatoes on cracked 78 records our home a broken-
down boat atop grassy waves always cresting never breaking
and we rode wild green horses down the lane as far as the mud
daubers and back
one day their prickly rumps transmogrified into
the dropping boughs of Norway spruce stones became stones
potatoes potatoes
at the dawning
as they say of the new millennium it's nine o'clock i stand
before a room full of children arranged in rows sing o canada
alone why won't you sing i ask the music is too high or too low
they say they are shy i cannot make them sing i teach them
the difference between colons and semi-colons tell them if you
write a letter to the prime minister he will answer you don't
need a stamp i explain this history is a story somebody makes
up we mustn't call them Indians
o where do you come from sadie
and taylor where are you going do you have a plan jordan do you
believe you will know when something is right and wrong and sameera
my love will you eat the flesh of the stories or my dears my dears will
you just nod off to sleep
- later than same century, after Czeslaw Milosz's "Rising of the Sun", pg. 66
Displaying 1 of 1 review