prologue

before the ball's

first flight

before the bat's swift
violence cracks

or nimble fingers drape
the seams or palms

knead instinctively

to dull the cowhide's sheen
which long ago had lost its sheen

before the sun-
patched infield kicks
its dust around the red ball jets
come sandlotter 
warnings of shattering glass:

"no chips!"

"no chips!"

Columbus Park,

Quequechan, c.1953

-Traveler-

1. 

How softly distance paints the Rockies.

Behind us the echoes dissect  

Our impressions in young disobedience.

The twilight distance brushes 

An orange tincture to the peaks.

The mountain’s ember. 

The sweep of the valley is lightly-

Colored.

2.

What warms from the hearth 

Is what moves through the room

Is the warmth of the wood

At the strike of the fire.

What warms at the hearth

Is what lives in the room 

Which is finding its way

Through the smoke of the wood.

                                           For the young women of Colorado 17

                                           Denver, Boulder, 1969?