Dreaming of Golden Flowers
Rent from DeepDyve- Dreaming of Golden Flowers
This moon isn’t dancingin the courtyard
of the dead tonight, as Lorcawrote, but dusting
the grass near the riverbeyond our back fence
where young lovershave spread their blanket
not far from where,last summer,
our neighbor’s horsewas shot in
the hindquartersby passing teenagers
in a pickup.Sometimes I stand
by the fenceand offer the horse [End Page 40]
an apple cuppedin my palm,
and sometimes loversarrive after dark
to lie down bythe river amid
moonlight. We haveour animal bodies,
after all, like the childrenwho ran past
the doorway from whichLorca was taken
by the Falangists.I think we stutter
our way toward beauty,which is why this field
tonight is blankof everything except
the lovers, the horse,and the loneliness
of moon and mudand grass. [End Page 41]
Doug Ramspeck is the author of five poetry collections. His most recent book, Original Bodies (Southern Indiana Review P), received the Michael Waters Poetry Prize and is forthcoming. Two earlier books were also selected for awards: Mechanical Fireflies won the Barrow Street Press Book Prize, and Black Tupelo Country, the John Ciardi Prize.
