Fresh Person Alive



 

Fresh Person Alive

I’ve been tasting the world
And I no longer taste food

I taste cold air, icy, sweet,
the smell of blazing bold leaves.
Hair in the grass,
warm in my skin in my scratchy wool.
Clouds drift by
To the sound of guitar strings
And voices.

I taste grit between my teeth
Bringing the clay to center
Floating, slipping
Soft and smooth and wet
Gives way
Suddenly I notice how tense I am
I release
And press and
Pull the earth into still curves
Strong, she said.

I taste sparks
Dew on spiderwebs
Strong glint
Fog that
    Revealed the [invisible] and veils [everything else]
A [sunbeam] on [dark pews]
    Again with this [God]
Like blood on snow,
a red rose I saw among the white.

But I am still hungry
And so I taste white water
Mostly brown
The current pulls down so I pull in.
True nature revealed
Red in tooth and claw he said.
All uphill I scream with glory
I crawl through the dreck
Just to taste it.

Anyway, hungry for love
I taste the world
All
All of it
until my lungs are squeezed
and I can barely breathe.

I bite the paper of her letter,
Hungry for a taste of what I thought I knew
I taste ink,
my tongue turned red.
A red wasp turns
Looks me in the eyes
And stings.

I dreamt I saw a hummingbird last night,
Just like it appeared to us,
A flash full
Red and blue and green.

So in my last gasping cry
I find breath for
My Song,
Full bodied tang
Of red and blue and green!

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