I hope children still learn to sing in rounds, the way we did in music class—not against our will,exactly, but maybe without enthusiasm. Makenew friends, began the first part, because youhad to learn life lessons even from the ornamentsof song, everything taught as a reflection ofhow we were expected to live. One is silver and …
Maybe I’m doing this wrong. Whilethe world skips from tongue to tongue, I’m stuck on the book that holds the oldest language I know, as if a kingkept me close: While everyone else abandoned monarchy, I satdown and stayed put. Even when I was mad atGod, I couldn’t give up the idiom of Hispeople, who …
The swifts speak to the sky likespies tapping out practice code, pushing theair away so the sun might paint their pale forms quinceand rose. They follow constellations of insects threaded amongthe slash pines and the early clouds, intricate and holy as theweavings of some celestial spider. These treesare tall enough to suggest their own kind …