Clay Bison in a Cave
- Clay Bison in a Cave
Clay-tan, eyeless, voiceless, even in a sense weightless, in motion yet motionless still for centuries and centuries, stuck in this motion of climbing, perhaps lost, these two Paleolithic bison, heads lifted, strained back to the black endless sky, as they climb toward sunny grass. Which black sky? Which grass? Rock-step by rock-step, up they go, on up and up. The black sky at the top of the cave. The grass that is always more a promise in a dream than that sweet kiss blown by water-colored wind.
Clarence Major, who has won awards for his poetry and fiction, recently published a novel, Dirty Bird Blues, and edited two anthologies, Calling the Wind: Twentieth-Century African-American Short Stories and The Garden Thrives: Twentieth-Century African-American Poetry. His books include Some Observations of a Stranger at Zuni in the Latter Part of the Century, Surfaces and Masks, Painted Turtle: Woman with Guitar, Fun & Games, and Swallow the Lake. He teaches at the University of California-Davis.
