Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

FOR SUSTENANCE by COE BOTKIN

First Line: THE MOMENTUM OF ARMS AND LEGS
Last Line: TEACHES ITS YOUNG TO SING.
Subject(s): WOMEN;
The momentum of arms and legs
In design of parade,
Carries hot bodies of exhausted men,
Searching for a golden promise;
Columns doubling to a hill
Crying for sustenance.
Over the hill and far away they pass
Spattering mud on white cottages.

The rain taps a message --
Presage of sustenance.
A woman, listening,
Arises from her sleeping child.
(He must know no gun.)
Cool her face that feels the rain.
She plans a play-pen
Where the tiger-lilies run
A border of gold; and then
Beyond her garden-bush,
She makes support
For trumpet-vines that cling
Where a grosbeak
Teaches its young to sing.



Home: PoetryExplorer.net