Poetry of Issue #7        Page 9

Talk

A reptile has a forked tongue,
good for the reptile, for picking up cues.
You speak with a reptile tongue,
requiem for your tongue, once (I thought)
so whole, so holy in my mouth.

Here’s what happened: The French
invited the Iroquois to talk peace,
then butchered them.

Lenin said trust is good, control is better.
That Lenin!

What could I have done differently?

Everyone knows the tale of the turtle
and the scorpion, or its variant,
the girl and the snake.
When the scorpion stings the turtle
while crossing the river’s rapids, they both sink,
but when the snake, sheltered
by the girl’s winter coat, bites her,
it’s only the girl who dies.

I can’t escape your nature.

You are the country of very little talk.
When we try, crucial translations
are missing from my field guide.