The Spirits of the laws

(title stolen from Czeslaw Milosz)

 

A crowd gathers

at the edge of a burned field

representing nothing

but a burned field.

Lightning could have caused it,

but we know better.

*

*

*

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Ocean Floor

 

At the bottom they see as the surface,

a place where all oxygen is crushed,

breathless life gathers

around a volcanic vent,

warming their hands and trading rumors

about a surface far above,

a place where all oxygen is crushed.

*

*

*

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A short poem to the Statue of Liberty

 

You must learn to smile:

Endurance becomes you