midnight to reason (a northern hemisphere poem)

photo by Don Levy
at Poetry and Prose reading
at the Art Center in Troy NY
1/8/2017

it is Winter season 
and death is everywhere above the fray 
Earth in stilled skin parched with ice plays 
womb flights to tiny needs, baby teeth we lose 
when reason comes for us to be adults ...

the heart will say to us 
never bargain a cow for the goose 
that gold is immutable 
because it matches your soul 
and don't grow holes 
in the fabric of your expression 
as much as plant 
ideas, those beans 
and apple seeds 
you piece yourself together with ...

I prefer scarlet runners 
and like to watch how 
these nascent tenacious things 
can grow like I do when I am kind  
with Love and joy and what 
has me running back to wild ...

all the 
while 
I look 
at myself 
on any 
of these long nights  
reflected in candlelight 
at a window 
perhaps 
I see a child 
inside me 
smiling back 
a tree ...


EJR ©