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| "Ode to Helen (Study)," 2011, by Emma Jane Levitt |
After the Valley
If you make it through the valley there will be
more for you Rocks and shivering mountain
goats velcroed impossibly to tiny pedestals
so that you will worry about them maybe even
years after seeing them They’re fine They prefer
to trample a pebble into a plateau Anyway think
of the valley as a hallway Cadet blue lockers
like the halls of your high school We bestow
a magic on those short four years Shove totems
and myths into their hands and drag them along
with us A secret I would tell them all (even the
superbly happy ones) This will matter less than
you can imagine although people and the smallest
and oddest incidents will remain with you Bring
your bursting pockets with you through the valley
Scatter or plant what you like and as you walk
years from now you can know that back here
something grows
[Image above by Emma Jane Levitt]
Wonderful opening line, and the poem's turn in the middle, and then another turn beginning with "This will matter less...." The poem leaves me full of questions, and wondering.
ReplyDeleteSome wonderful work by Levitt.