Man Poem One by Bruce W Niedt
A cough in the sleep of life brought me here..
Among suddenly in the ages of earth I am born,
belched out from the warm sea,
gasp from the rocks as the
fish are my fathers,
regurgitation of wet new fur,
the flashing sea,
the gleam in the dry sun.
A pain in the breast of earth are my bones.
The calcium seams in layers,
the fossil-heart,
the movement of the old, dark
shadow, my fathers
teeth, the struggle of form in
the primitive,
the piled rocks,
the hard sky.
And I
Uncoil, sweep my self over sun-scoured sand,
My scales erect with crust of seasalt,
feather-fur stands on my back-like-needles,
limbs grow taut with muscle
and
I
stand,
earthen my brain,
the rocks and sun
brown, the world posed on
a stone-killed valley, crushed
rubble down the gray-bitten cliff,
an immense
listening.
My eyes spring from
my cliff, my valley
lies quiet and
brown, my sky rumbles
blue from its dome, and I
scream
I scream like a first and last animal,
on the dry, laughing land.
[1971]
06/25/2003 Posted on 06/25/2003 Copyright © 2025 Bruce W Niedt
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