1
You have held off this long speaking
why go on so now?
How do I go on when I haven't
even started?
It's all been said anyway a hundred
times over
You are you and I am I
Yes but who are we together?
it's your hands that I want to take
both together and hold not tight
but close enough to know their scars
their red worked heartlines
I won't be read you know
I won't be read
I want to know by touch
what lives under your skin
those soft pulses of girlhood
2
I'm stepping in someone's steps
heavy bootprints deep-treaded
They stretch my strides to match them
I am Wenceslaus's treble-voiced
page mimicking his bass notes but
Hey where the snow's packed deeper
he's given way to play running
you can see in short steps and
sliding long slides My feet obey
and his fun becomes mine his quick
breath mine his long whoopees
whistle through my nose Hey are those
boots beside us running and sliding
too a chance passerby or a joining
friend? A girl's by the look on them
maybe a child's more playful and
wayward than either his or mine
Now another joins and as I pass the
Jewish graveyard and the Parish hall
down to the firehouse whose square
tower echoes the mausoleum
the sliding running stomping crowd
of them asks me why I'm here
alone doing a desperate hopscotch
to keep up with them all Maybe
I'll catch up down around
the turn where they mass and file
with blown out scarves bright
toques and snowcuffed mittens
some pied piper's crowd of
all kinds of kids and lovers
caught in the Good King's purposes