RESPONSE TO JEREMIAH
Dana Littlepage Smith

She has committed adultery with the stones, the trees.

Call it grace. I had the knack of knowing
when life swells & surges in stony things.
I heard the mute sing, then lowered myself
to fossil & fissured rock.
The dark earth took me in.

Look at the lordly oak, the languid willow -
the ones they say I mounted.
Examine the crotch that held my own,
the leafy arms, the nubs of blooms,
the sweet girl-boy nipples.

Which one had me first? Which one
said yes,said here,begged
now. The straight laced poplar?
Reliable cedar? Or was it
the sober yew? The flagrant mango?

Let me instruct you in my dark-seeded
truths, brother. It is the root
of heaven I have mounted.
It comes and comes for centuries
through bog and heath, wetland & savannah.

See how it grovels through mud & slime,
grubbing for just this- one mortal body, mine.