R.A. Burleigh Poems

We sit while children crawl about happy
Toys are scattered like leaves
Red and orange and brown from my old house at 407
I never saw so many leaves, or so many children
...

I sat beneath this old professor once
who wore a horned skin and coal smudged suits
I sat with ease and dreamed his sunken eyes saw
and held more than the truths of mild daylight
...

(For Mariano)

Lying on elbows in the tiring, sweet sun
warm by the Spanish mountains
...

(For Toby and Colin)

Just north of the estuary of the Reora River
swirling below Hamond Falls by more than a mile
...

I search for you everywhere
In small towns and markets
In old photos in the box near my bed
...

The haunting weeds pursue;
the hollow corners moan;
the sad lady is well away.
...

Do you understand why
The ancient people had so many gods
For air, water, love, warfare, fire, afterlife, storms
For home, hearth, travel, conception, weather
...

I was frightened with every step the babies took
It wasn't right, it wasn't fair
It was my mother's old nightmare, not mine
...

I am walking through a distant land
The drumbeats of a great fractioned crowd
The incorporation of time and scattered blood
...

There was nobody like Gayle Sayers
Nobody who could cut a field like it was a piece of paper

There was nobody like Jim Thorpe who could run all day
...