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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


GEO-BESTIARY: 28 by JAMES HARRISON

Poet Analysis

First Line: HOW CAN I BE ALONE WHEN THESE BRAIN CELLS
Last Line: AROUND THEIR BRIGHT COSMIC BODIES.
Subject(s): DESPAIR; MONEY;

How can I be alone when these brain cells
chat to me their million messages
a minute. But sitting there in the ordinary
trance that is any mammal's birthright, say on a desert
boulder or northern stump, a riverbank,
we can imitate a barrel cactus, a hemlock tree,
the water that flows through time as surely
as ourselves. The mind loses its distant
machine-gun patter, becomes a frog's
occasional croak. A trout's last jump in the dark,
a horned owl's occasional hoot,
or in the desert alone at night
the voiceless stars light my primate
fingers that I lift up to curl
around their bright cosmic bodies.



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