RUTH DAIGON
Out of Our Elements

Let us speak simple to one another
with the sound of our ancestors
and the lazy lineage of history

let us listen to prized inflections
and marvel at the stubborness of time
for the shtetel is everywhere

glowing days are followed by pale nights
and since no one here is guaranteed heaven
our apples fall to the warm promise of earth

we meet out of our elements
spinning substance to substance
one strand at a time

and our time is all time
with the newness of every moment
entering   
leaving
a foster child of silence and slow time
subtle as a needle lifting a dropped stitch
with slow resolutions
and a whole tone     a clear tone
sustained for one long measure

past dissonance
into melodic intervals
and the world mourning itself