UNNAMING THE PRAIRIE

I worked hard to let 
this prairie be a prairie.
Learned to unname its parts.
Slipped into the finer grain

where you move
with the flow of things
by simply staying
very still.

Now the landscape 
is charged with you.
Your numinous presence 
shimmers everywhere.

In a willow thicket
we kissed with a crushed
and dripping strawberry
between our lips.

On your knees 
you murmured prayers 
to a mecca of penstemon 
my hand lens called you to.

On a pony-wild ridge
you made the wind
speak black spirals
to the blue of the sky.

We drank water deep
with the scent of mint
and cress and sun glint
from Tecovas Spring.

We stumbled through
the wine of stars
steaming from the mineral pools
of Montezuma.

We became the scent
of juniper burning
and rose like prayer
on release of our yearnings.

The process begins
again. Inhabiting 
the mind of prairie, 
the flow is now you 

and I learn 
to move with you,
to unname you, speechless
in the stillness of love.



© 2003 by Richard W. Todd

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