In that edition of the wind
the voice directly touched me–
it had gained blades of stone,
like an amputated tree.
Translated from the Spanish
by
Richard Zenith
Linda Gregg
SURROUNDED BY SHEEP AND LOW LAND
When Death comes, we take off our clothes
and gather everything we left behind:
what is dark, broken, touched with shame.
When Death demands we give an accounting,
naked we present our lives in bundles.
See how much these weigh, we tell him ,
refusing to deny what we have lived .
Everything that is touched by light
loves the light . We the stubborn as grass,
we who reel at the taste of sap
want our spirits cleansed; but will not
betray the weeds, snake, or crippled mare.
Never leave behind what the light shone on .
Jay Parini
GRANDMOTHER IN HEAVEN
In a plume-field, white above the blue,
she's pulling up a hoard of rootcrops
planted in a former life and left to ripen:
soft gold carrots, beets, bright gourds .
