The Innisfree Poetry Journal

www.innisfreepoetry.org

by Laura Manuelidis

Circling

You left me shredded and ravenous

No morsel on my bone

No reddened glint of muscle

My temple a pecking stone.

Only the heft, imperious

Forthcoming from your throat

Letters all jumbled and backwards

A schism of lightning:  your storm.

At last the rain came forward

And melted each black note to naught

So I found the strange center of nothing

And floated my hungry thoughts.

The dream dove returned with new branches

The promise of peace on the land

The slash of divisions abolished

No owners, no conquerors, no gods.

            A child is wanting some manna

            That hangs to excess neighbor's tree

            The bucket beside him kicked empty

            For nothing is free that is free.