this is a WONDERFUL book of poetry written by my dear friend derek, who was kind enough to ask me to create some illustrations to nestle between the pages of his new chap book, called A Revised Account of the West. it has just been printed in flyway magazine... if you are interested you can purchase a copy here, http://www.flyway.org/currentissue.html It is a fantastic read (i promise).
As Seen Through a River
The bank of silt cools
my shins where I kneel and pore
over a skittish mob of six water
striders whose spidery bodies
do not sink. Instead of piercing
the surface, each wire-thin
leg presses into being a supple dimple.
As they stir they talk
in clear syllables, a jittering council
I can only watch. Around us,
sagebrush flares from a land of hot dust,
pale-green campfires a hundred years guttering.
Power lines rise and dip, buzz
out of sight. I must say something
terrible as I reach in. My bugs
twitch away—rippled exclamation
leaving my arm dangling.
And my face from the underside
must be wobbly and huge in the middle
of ring after exploding ring.
The bank of silt cools
my shins where I kneel and pore
over a skittish mob of six water
striders whose spidery bodies
do not sink. Instead of piercing
the surface, each wire-thin
leg presses into being a supple dimple.
As they stir they talk
in clear syllables, a jittering council
I can only watch. Around us,
sagebrush flares from a land of hot dust,
pale-green campfires a hundred years guttering.
Power lines rise and dip, buzz
out of sight. I must say something
terrible as I reach in. My bugs
twitch away—rippled exclamation
leaving my arm dangling.
And my face from the underside
must be wobbly and huge in the middle
of ring after exploding ring.
