For Jim Harrison
morning long before
sun’s rays
peer over Absarokas
snow-hushed peaks
quiet hours
gathering April daybreak
wandering fragrant
sagebrush hummocks
among tall grasses
reed-edged waters
stringing bamboo rods
tying tiny midge patterns
entice dormant cutthroats
rainbows venturing away
shadowy cutbanks & deep
pools nudging aside
winter silt bottom pebbles
emerging larval detritus
harbinger of Spring
warmth & evening hatches
föhn & trees quiver
body & mind shiver
disturbing moods curse
masks of Illuminati
katabatic wind melting
late spring snows
rock jagged Kybfelsen
casting long shadows
dark forests most stygian
along peopled margins
& not deeper within
walking along
Gottingen rain blows
hard & cold
she touching hands
whispering cryptic
words so gently
what is this place
why are we here
walking along
wet pavement
Gottingen in the rain
song says winter
is so cruel here
into a Sally Ann
seeking warmth
for heart & soul
nothing there for us
walking along
Gottingen rain blows
hard & cold
night train brattling
in Strasbourg’s ambit
your mother reclining
no regard for her book
enigmatic smile flashing
hinting some secret
I will not know for years
behind dark eyes
aspect beyond inclusion
that faint neonate pulse
knowing you already
had I grasped then
what she already knew
sensing an arcanum of you
stirring deep & mysterious
within her as she sat quietly
there would be no surprise
now I see you sitting there
tree-shaded Berlin café
four decades passing
since that night train
that enigmatic smile
your mother’s dark eyes
I wonder if you share
her secret of you
now long buried
Lincoln Plat churchyard
never aging beyond
that long-ago girl
still searching for her
this place below
summit of Azichohos
where once she lived
staring at creased class
picture quietly standing
schoolhouse steps
front row so young
smock dress & sweater
white anklets collapsing
over rough shoes
years fade static youth
