The ivory of speech
…of course I hated the wars
but like all men active
I fought in them too
And now I speak to you
from blood and broken-ness
As in a forest:
all the trees that are fallen and kept alive by mosses and vines.
How to know ivory
without knowing of elephants?
Search through all experience
for the language of the tongue
Emotion,
the blood
the voice sinks into
yet comes to know only
if it
swims a distance
and from there
listens
for the liquid whisperings
* To find what speaks us
there in the here and now.