Lee Ann Brown

The child asks, bringing it to me in handfuls.
We stop at the Walt Whitman Service Area—
No sign of Him save some 'Democratic Vistas'
...

Sheaves of wheat in cement relief
Supply the beauties of Archer Ave.
Past the scaffolded brick church spire
We turn on the vacant corner lot
...

Come on, you who remembers your dreams
who acts upon them in this world
Come you who I often and silently call
so that I may be with you
Come and sustain me
and I will sustain you
with what sustenance I have
with the curls of revolutionary quiet
with lovely baroque convolutions of thought
Come make with me a baby
of both of us
A new and separate being
with brothers & sisters
born & unborn
Who we will meet and recognize
as time progresses
we know not
How
Yet
isn't that the
Beauty of it
late into the nights
early in the Day
sleeping and waking
when apart not separate
for the distant vibrational hum
if I listen under the earth
lets me listen to myself
The Full Register
of the Earth
and
all Musics of the Spheres
the waters
we have within each other
and all around
the very air
Share our perceptions
Respect our quiets
Heal our hurts
throats and necks
backs and hearts
Protect to Open
Make a new life
For those around us fully
and for those
To come

To come
To
...

So much on your plate
No love in vain
But then I dwell on it
Things change
It's come after me, you
Then 'THAT'S ALL FOLKS!'
The best emotional mess of me space
now
Hard to open up again
Handling instructions
Some people never do
Where it touches itself
Embarrassed by human tears
Still here at a playful distance
...

Disgorged palm trees
drink Tijuana leather
juice cross tiger lily frets
of set tequila gradients
Slap all out - your name here
tweaked & tender again
adopt-a-wreck
enter wrong way
Happy to walk the tracks
just like a telecaster
in her own little burb
she faxes so lightly
...

or is it

The Southern Lyre


Who is burning the churches? Make them stop!
After weaving our way through the new upscale Charlotte-city limits suburban scrawl out Rae Road through her country memory, my mom and I persuade the cop protecting the vacated scene to let us past the yellow and black plastic ribbons to see the smoldered mess not much left - blackened beams, jambs kicked in by anonymous torch, red clay wet from last night's useless hoses- a little house with vacant front porch right across the street - I imagine the fear and
went home and wrote this poem:



A Call for
Vertical Integration in the Eye of the Storm


Purple & blue tiffany combo in
Church of my childhood struggle of perfect
Public meat longing again vine-covered
Power flower conflict hunger for green

Struggle if that is sin then separation
Grace abounds even more than bonds-
Doubt boundaries not programmable
Stretched grace strikes us down-
Social eels demand ransom, children

Do not bow your heads tranquility of hymns
Is shattered & addressed two days ago I
Saw the Black Ash of a Church Burned on its
Sure Foundation Century old pin oaks scorched

Against stones of those who can't leave this sight-
Who witnessed who drove away burning the sermon during


___________________________________

Charlotte,
I love you deeply
That's why I had to leave

I see your changes keyed up rapidly flashing past the new contra dance named the Independence Boulevard which is way convoluted like the traffic which is nothing compared to here up North from whence I sign this letter


Letter Out, Letter Back
...

'I thank the world it will anoint me
If I show it how I hold it'

— Will Oldham

I pledge allegiance to the lamb
And also to the other one
The march is long and now I stand
Again on ground fresh broken



I had small difficulty made
In keeping up with your parade
The underbrush was heavy, dense
With sounds of distant fire

I’ve been cut & I’ve been frayed
Then spliced as whole as any maid
Despite this rending I have stayed
In aisles of trees amongst the shades

I pledge allegiance to the lamb
And also to the other one
The march is long and now I stand
Again on ground fresh broken



Our loved ones they have gone
Far from camps of death and harm
We’re still in this mortal coil
Words of Love as leaves unfurl

Now you & me we’re each alone
Yellow cake & marrow bone
All sense of fear can pass away
I trace a map along the way



I pledge allegiance to the lamb
And also to the other one
The march is long and now I stand
Again on ground fresh broken



(Sing to minor place, Bonny Prince Billy)
...

(o death)

loved one’s
loved ones



we laughed
goodbye



generous
all we can do is
hold them
like I held
wanted to be
do not desert
us life not yet
we have to hold the other
on to us the living
let go(o death)

loved one’s
loved ones



we laughed
goodbye



generous
all we can do is
hold them
like I held
wanted to be
do not desert
us life not yet
we have to hold the other
on to us the living
let go
...

Author of light

Break now my heart

Our pleasure sleeps

This place I remember
...

Amazing sentences from Mother’s Letters

For the time being, the doll is in the freezer but that will not solve the problem forever. When I got the house all decorated with dogwood branches which I had forced plus camellias and put the Ukrainian eggs you gave me on my popcorn dogwood branches, we were all ready for company. If you are acquainted with any nutritional 'health nuts' who have some new suggestions, please send them. I served slaw & Herlocker’s Barbeque heated in the special sauce which Bob had gotten on Highway 29. At one point he turned several summer salts on the floor while he continued to play the instrument which is curved in shape. This past week I went to the Black Forest Book Store where I asked the owner to help me find a book that would be especially good for Esther Massey Prince’s grandchildren (when their mother dies of a brain tumor) which may be soon. We were amazed to see that the children’s choir was made up of nine Hmong children plus 6 American blondes. Whoever has the most pennies in the jar has to kiss a cow (perhaps a calf) on December 10th. She told him that she was going to Washington to see the Dutch artist’s exhibit with 'someone else.' I cooked thin lean porkchops.
...

Five days later
We’re still having fun
Cracking open the bow ties
Of the chefs of metropolis
Eating whole plateaus
Mirrored in your eyes
White reflective jackets

Pouncing escalators
of Moma’s undulating,
Frank stairwells
Chrome cigar gardens
lit by C notes
modern seers
pluck the electric cacti
of fur coats
in line
thanks for the
jump start
cut up
nervous taxi
my heart: Frank is the better part of
your heart poetry?

Red dot on my forehead:
married to poetry
more like a neglected lover
Or one I save up for —
Express the F stop — I’m reading to Queens
your poetry beside Anne Bradstreet’s
to my dear and loving husband
which Harry Diaz read and
remembered
2 lines of
so I’ll bring the whole thing
to him to class
to read and
to enjoy tomorrow
...

Once I had a garnet ring
garnet ring
garnet ring
Set in a thin gold band garnet ring

My father gave it me
But it was not to be

For I broke it with a twig underneath
underneath
I broke it with a twig underneath

Then my mother gave to me
gave to me
gave to me
A silver dogwood ring
from a tree

It has petals four
I’ll wear forevermore
On my right hand
for all to see



The love I thought was true
Ne’er gave me
Ne’er gave me
A ring of earth nor sea
Earth nor sea

Instead he gave to me
Three things I cannot see
And they ring inside of me
O my soul
O my soul
They Sing inside of me
O my soul

(Sing to hymn tune: 'What Wondrous Love is This?')
...