SNOW PIPE

Caveat the bleeding
with softwood, bloodroot,
hyssop's soft poultice
and brie sharp meal.

To eat...to eat!
The tough-boned ancestors,
ramidus -- erectus,
swill of hominid on tap of dull pap,

and relish the forbearers
of field scented bowel,
warring eyes behind masked
emollient clay.

To eat...to eat!
our bone ripened history,
of violent misdeed,
of full bloodied contest
on fossil entrails.

Then redress the resemblance
in stone chisel resolve,
lolling tongues to the nectar
of a miscreant's glee broad-
deviled embrace.

To eat...to eat!
the hard-crusted lessons
foraged sweets to a harvest,
scattered whey to a scythe,
of a slow crop to surmise.

David Sutherland
Fishkill NY