PICKINGS

Poetry from NHI publications



TO WALK INTO DEEP WATER
To walk into deep cold water that
mirrors entirely me with silver scales
flooding the coral of my lungs —
easily I would give
into that loudness, bubbles of silence, each
willingly in exchange for drowning

To lie below earth as a relic or
pebble held concrete-tight, hearing
no newsreel screaming with passion,
reading no typefaced monotonous
black and white millions dying
their share of the planet's decay, in my
fossil nirvana not smelling
the meat of the burning of men.

Sunlight is held in soft
green paws of the young chestnut leaves as
they rest on their twigs
like parachutes falling,
blunt spires rising. Might not
melting in the sky like spilled air be
fine invisibility.
CAL CLOTHIER
from
New Hope International 1980/81

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This page last updated: 24th November 2005.