I don't want to speak of your sky and my sea and their land and our people -- or of the cars the roads the houses. The sky is a long list of verbs. The sea is its table of contents. The landscape is something people move across. Out of their cars, people themselves are like bushes near water. They drink it through their roots. The background tension you feel comes on because talking begins from fear. These roads we use are actually dried-out rivers that lead us into each other's lives. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org |