Friday Poem

Siena, age 3 months

I carried my baby down the dark
road between the moon
and pond. She cried as if she wanted
some better balance
of light and water.
………………………… I tried
to sing her what quiet
I could from those places.
But she cried
as if she needed calm
from far below me,
below the search for balance,
……………………………… ……….deep
into rock, down where centers
meet, where I could no more
extract it than she would know
if she saw it. As if she knew
I could grasp at the loss
as ballast against falling
or floating any sudden way.
………………………………….…. Or
that I could hold her close
against both our uneven places
and sway and sway and sway and sway

Mike Chrisman
from
5 Minute Pieces
Arms Library Reading Series
Shelburne Falls, MA, 1998