The Shaker

Clicking seed pods in Amazon canopy
crickling knees of a cricket in dry grass
urgency in the rhythm coming
across great bodies of water
to seek you out

Lifeline of the singer,
        the story-teller
     the dancer in flight
who lands on the moveable surface
of grumbling stones

Arroyo of rattlers
who have eaten the water
and spit out insistent noontime heat
insects that harry the sleeper
aphrodisiac dreams

O traveler
close to the bones across evening prairies
shaman's apprentice, salute
to the threshold between
the worlds.

                                   Soledad Prison, CA, January 98.

~ ~ Janine Pommy-Vega

Printed by permission of Bob Arnold, executor of Janine Pommy Vega estate.