EVERYTHING IS ALL SET

Dreaming of the sun, old girl?
Dream of nothing but
as through the rickety gate is sky,
a thickening smear of love.

I once knew a dog who wagged her tail
to the rhythm of sunshine broken through leaves.
It was an old trick of the light,
a repeating stanza no one hears twice.

We can bleat, we can bray,
but nothing sounds from so far away
as your dreamland bark. Puts me in your picnic,
ragamuffin, tongue-loller, eye-winker.

You taste the shadows of an afternoon
like a sleeping bee recalls lilac,
having furrowed, long ago, a stray cluster.
This is the corner I long to rock in,

the side of the room cleaned by sunbeams.
I am through with dusting,
everything is all set, really.
Speaking of perfection, this late breeze.

§ § §

Zev Levinson lives behind the Redwood Curtain in Humboldt County, California. He teaches at Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods, and to younger students through California Poets in the Schools. He wonders if he'll ever grow up.

You can reach him at zevlevinson@hotmail.com .

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