Come, Pioneer
       

/1/

What forest is there to run to,
other than the one within another's heart?

What appears to be deeply rooted
is half dead        drowning
and sucking at the sun.

/2/

I hate to say this
but what is stable
can be easily disrupted,
and what is easily disrupted
can cloud      even        the clearest of days.

This is what I have come to know
after being turned on,
            turned over,
                        and turned round.

/3/

I want to spark the heat of this body with the heart, with
the heart of the heart, with the heart of the heart of this
body, with the whole body of the heart, and then I want to
slow it down and tinker with it. I want to slow it all the way
downdowndown to a gentle timber,
                                                                or fall.

/4/

To pioneer is to take part in the beginnings of something.

Come, Pioneer.
I am tired of shepherding this heart. Help
me to believe. Come.
I am near willing to give it up and over. Come,
before I bury it all under.

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Copyright © 2019 Leah Umansky All rights reserved
from Poetry Northwest
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission