I left my baby in Forest A 
quivering toward light:
Keep warm, dear thing, drink from the cow ---
her stillness is alive

You in the leaves sweetly growing ---
survive these plants upheaved
with noise and flame, learn change
in strategy.

I think of Joe who never knew
where is baby went
and Mary heavy, peace or war,
no child, no enlightenment.


 = Shelley Lynn Johnson