Class of 2011

Some oldies for today..

Class of 2011

In June, in the tobacco fields of my youth,
the strongest one, my mom, would keep hoeing
the longest row
never upending the curved spine
till the edge of the line and back to the next one,
seeding in my young mind
the constancy of effort,
that rounding the circle
is the absolute endeavor of creation.

Breathless, I arrive yet again,
in the longest days of the year
and another school year comes to an end
and young ones have plowed new earth into their own circles of growth.

I inhale deep, the headiness of  graduation,
is like nicotine that fixes the arc of tobacco in my body
and my barren womb that held a child not
is cast again in the substitute mother role:
another class is delivered to the world.


Maria

NORTHERN LIGHT

I fled the whirlpool of loss
and spread weak wings against blue winds
homing to a nest
that I dreamed in vivid yellows and green
of my fields of sun.
And you became the northern gale
that carried me away
and the dreams iced over
in the igloo of our love.
You held me high, to puff my feathers
and I changed course
and left you behind
and watched you die
for the flight was always mine alone.
And I gathered your broken stone walls
and shattered branches
and fashioned myself a house
to shelter new love.
And the croaking of the frog
that feasted in your ashes,
remind me that
I had kissed my prince.

Maria Ling