Proving Grounds, The

My Parents in Bermuda, 1963

43 my PArenTs in bermudA, 1963 I imagine my mother falling in love With a man who would tell her That people are blights that grow On the surface of the earth the way Mistletoe preys on trees, its roots Channeling through trunks and inhaling Its water and nitrogen the way Binghamton winters siphon sunlight, Hearing him say you are life, You will save me,but she didn’t. In a picture from their Bermuda honeymoon He sits in plaid swimming trunks, leaning back On arms with triceps as defined as snakes, And as she holds the camera, the sun behind her, He looks at her like he is Inevitable as trees, as the surf Pounding behind him, stripping The soil down a little more each rush, My mother falling in love With a man so strip-mined He looks into the sun and doesn’t notice. ...