Not Egypt
John Taggart
1.
Turned sideways
window turns into pillars
shadow pillars and shadow porches
deep red valley in a valley way down in Egypt land
shadows and habitation
of the dead
Egypt
not Egypt nor Hernando’s hideaway
turned back
into window in my room
all’s green
the leaves of the trees the corn field beyond
grasses around the pond some of the green
some obscured by books
testaments of the dead
testaments of the unwrapped dead.
2.
So many so many stones
stone wall
limestone and zigzag mortar
the land silt loam so many wagon-loads of stones
stone wall of Jacob Ramp’s stone house
stone wall
stone foundation
so many wagon-loads of stones
dusk
dusk and dark along the road past Ramp’s stone house
to my house
white flowers of the Russian-olive
white flowers by starlight
wind
exhilaration of the fragrance of the flowers
by starlight.
3.
Side-road shortcut secret road
up through the woods
behind my house
up through the woods
perhaps made by Ramp perhaps made by his son
behind my house which was his son’s house
to the sweet cherry orchard
no longer there
not one tree of the orchard left to shake
mossy overhung with vines secret road to what’s there
to see in secret
to see the secret family crest in all around me
high up
on an ascended plane
kept alive.
4.
A good sign
the old redbud is dying
canker and wilt after last summer’s drought
all’s green and the heart-shaped leaves are gone
wilted and gone
good a terrible thing to say
sign
that the turned back remains turned
bad sign
all over behind my house all over redbud leaves emergent
heart-shaped leaves among the ferns
native tree
heart-shaped shadow
native tree and tree of betrayal
sign
what remains native among all the native green.
5.
Like a plow
cold-rolled iron shaped like a scoring-out plow
tempered point
a tool like a plow to make the mill-race
tool and tools
ahistorical pick and shovel
tool and tools
to move through depths of a valley
from the creek through another woods under another road
through another woods to the creek again
mill-race
made by a number of men with their tools
by their labor
which is my labor also
a labor of ecstasy
considerable labor of ecstasy.