West Virginia Poem

WEST VIRGINIA PROMISE

Come back, she said,
Where the creek water
Days are long
Green in the undergrowth
Green in the pines

She said, listen for
The snake rattle
Smell the copper cucumber,
Hear the rustle of the Hoop myth
Threading down a path
Green as nettle

She said, see the sun whisper
On the hills that
Are your children,
Loved like babes you cradle,
Green in the maple

She said, the days will change
Again to Green like innocence
The sacred space will render
Its new skin

Like morning
Green among the fiddle ferns,
Green among the new leaf
Green as a March wind….

January 10, 2004 nearly midnight
dKd