HOW DO YOU DRAW THAT PLACE
WHERE THE BOTTOM GOES INTO THE GROUND

Find the root
an old wrinkled root
(just below the right shoulder blade)
follow it down
down the DesMoines river valley
to Grandma Violaís 75th birthday party
Down where wild turkey voices
cry out for a mate,
Where ridges form in the soft river loam
from the sole
of her foot
pressing
down,
Where Goldfinch sing amidst the Hawthorn
prickers that grow from the center,
where
soft leaves
fall
down the face
of a scared oak tree.
In the valley a birth;
Anne Marie
(freshly inked footprints on the hospital door).
Nestled
in the flesh
of the Des Moines
a white headed eagle
soundlessly rises
through the timber,
follows
the rose colored light
down the long river home


Linnea Hadaway 1987