- Axum
I imagine the dead cities beneath the teff.
When fields give up their stones, the gift is mine: stand one upright, construct a shed to protect ancient carved words from rain and I will fly 8000 miles to gawk
at what I can’t read. Children gather, offer up some coins the fields tender.
What do I know about a life of plowing? The donkeys keep their eyes down as I pass. [End Page 868]
Click for larger view
View full resolution
[End Page 869]
Click for larger view
View full resolution
[End Page 870]
Click for larger view
View full resolution
[End Page 871]
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon is the author of Open Interval, a National Book Award finalist, and Black Swan, winner of the 2001 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. She teaches in the English Department at Cornell University.