You see a man walking the lanes & aisles of his vineyard & now
The spring tendrils stretch beyond his reach & you see too there’s a black dog
Beside him a blissful Lab who slices across a horizon still white with dawn
You see this landscape is the landscape of my valley the one I remember
Out of the plunder that is the swollen glow of reflection & so to you I’ll say
That a man is walking & I’ll tell you now he’s an older man & do you see his son
Behind him only nineteen or twenty no more his wool sweater wrapped
Around him the color of the dust at his feet a rich gold without equal
& now the sun begins to rub itself across the sky & this is the dog’s life
Yet also the man’s as well & he knows soon this boy will be leaving the valley
With a girl even younger than his son in a silver Pontiac LeMans
North along Highway 99 north all the way until they cross into Canada
Where anyone who wants to send his son to die won’t be able to find him
& so there among the aisles & lanes & heavy grapes the father stops & the dog
Stops to turn & face the boy who drags a hand slowly along the Lab’s silky head
& quietly wraps his skinny arms around his father & in the vineyard dust that’s all