Shadow of the World

Looking out the window
I can see tracks across the stubble field...
The mountains make a sort of melody
against the sky & the clouds
look like an angel's fingers
reaching for the sun.
I'm riding down the highway
so fast & so comfortable
and my thoughts
are like so many trees
climb the embankment to the north...
sun warm on my cheek
warmer than I've been all week...
...concrete block convenience store
flashes by...and the gas station dog
lying out in the sun...
& the blue frame house
with its shiny windows
& its steel roof...

& it seemed for a moment like I could look
into those shiny windows,
or into the shine on the car glass,
like I was looking into the shiny eyes
of my own animal fate
& see exactly what they got written there.
But its only mirrors
and like all mirrors everything is reversed
so its hard to tell what's what
with your own death
'cause that's what's written there.
Nothing else. Just that.
So what I see instead
is the red willow
& the snow on the river
& the road signs
and the sun flicking through the trees.

& I can see
that there's a shadow runs right down
the centre of the world
& there's a tree
that joins some heaven to this earth
& there's a field
that makes a space for all of us
& there's an edge that all can recognize
& there's a sky that holds us in her arms
& there's an earth which feeds us
& keeps us warm
& there's a car that waits to take us
from the darkness to the light
& there's a car that waits to bring us back
& there's a mind as big as everything
& there's a heart as big as anything
& there a talk that tells it all
& there's a shadow
runs right down the centre of the world.

& there's a boundary
that ain't a limit but a jest
and there's an edge
that's broken just like a law
and there's a music
for going out
and there's a music
that takes us home
And there's a music that
carries us to paradise
And there's a music that
brings us back
And there's a music
that's full of shadows,
And there's a music
that's full of light
And there's a singing in the trees
And there's shimmer in the leaves
And the one who wants to sing
will always find a song
And there's a short way
And there's the long way
And there's the right way
And the wrong way
And the car is moving down the highway

And there's a bee-box sitting in the field
And the hay that's lasted through the winter.
And there's a broken bridge
between two hills,
And the shadow of your head
falls upon my lap
and oh the river is so beautiful
it is so beautiful
it is so full of movement
& light
so sure of its own perfection...
an etched blue line marks
the curving edge of yellow sand
a whitened tree limb juts upwards...

and then the flash of hydro poles
takes over the organization of the world --
reeling out the blue field
& the steel fence --
black cattle spotted on the hill --
the caved-in barn
with the "Jesus Saves" sign --
the crappy looking
green and white mobile home
down in the valley . . .
no leaves on the cotton woods yet
just a little sun flicking through the trees
a brown horse with one white foot
standing in a field by a big rock
Highway sign
with a picture of a crow
# 3
East BC