3
There was this bird suddenly with a trill
Delineating all the apple trees,
A trill like a whisker, the whisker bird;
And after this, the high call of the muezzin,
More whisker; the tractor, whisker; the apples,
Orchard whiskers, globular and green.
4
The wrinkled cloven features of the rock
Outcrops hereabouts, and this granny's:
Tenderly she gestured beside her-
On the road shoulder, at last gasp, her sheep.
But it can't die in the trunk like a hostage,
Can it? So we drove on, but granny
Who tutored sheep through misty generations,
From lamb's first leap to milking, to wool,
Each a silken pocket, full of foibles,
We left her looking back down the empty road.
5
"Life is hard, still harder when you're dumb"–
But they aren't, in one-room stone and plaster
Huts, the graceful girls, headscarf knotted right,
In clean clothes, the mother with a scalded foot,
Taking the pain. They all sweat it out,
him
too,
Dawn to dusk, among the white beans, baba,
Granite face, who talks a streak.
6
Where from, the slender fingers?
Wi th a carving knife she hacks
The block of snow somebody carried
Down the mountain. Just look,
How the slender fingers dip a piece
In the mound of sugar and establish it
Between tongue and teeth. In the town,
Wintertime...but it's far off.
Up here, we make do with snow cream.
