If Thou Canst Not Today,
Then Tomorrow

                    (after seeing The Burning Times)

Give me your hand husband
if you canst not today then tomorrow
unreal to me

the animal lost
somewhere inside me   good lover
of our body

here music escapes into fog
spilling between bars of the cage
open as sacred

women remember their origins
when there was a hammer against
when our power was to give away

singing never flawless or without fog
and so pure     expression
leaves no written record

our valley is broad and includes heresy
drowning sustaining the oral calendar
as the animal of spring regroups

dancing on the empty rocks
a bird greater than the church
and still we won't stop bleeding

Copyright © 2002 Tracy Philpot All rights reserved
from Distance From Birth
Elixir Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission