The Branch Will Not Break: Poems

IN MEMORY OF A SPANISH POET

IN MEMORY OF A SPANISH POET Take leave of the sun, and of the. ^vheat, for me. —MIGUEL HERNANDEZ, written in prison, 1942. I see you strangling Under the black ripples of whitewashed walls. Your hands turn yellow in the ruins of the sun. I dream of your slow voice, flying, Planting the dark waters of the spirit With lutes and seeds. Here, in the American Midwest, Those seeds fly out of the field and across the strange heaven of my skull. They scatter out of their wings a quiet farewell, A greeting to my country. Now twilight gathers, A long sundown. Silos creep away toward the west. 31 ...