–For Stan Plumly
David Parsons
Montgomery, Texas
I have been diving into your heart
for weeks now
like some lone bear returning to a kill
not always directly—
meandering through
your Meandering through trees that are rivers—branches,
alive with Magpies and Blue Jays, many, many Jays, and Spirit Birds taking me to more water, streaming
rivulets that run like blood, life’s milk from the many varied sources,
observations of the natural world, blood being always present, inescapable while feeding, head and heart,
rib deep in that divine carcass
of your minds eye, bloody run off from all our carnivore hearts is everywhere I look—
I know, I know there are butterflies, flowers, an abundance of flora,
the heart-felt human conditions,
and I should be feeling Keatsian and I do, but I can’t help thinking, too of that massive tome: Ted Hughes.