Dear God, I Said, What Do We Do Now? (A Cento)

Above the roofs of the village houses
the heaviest word
       when you break me

Anyone sleepless will hear the sound of the wind
of guitars and stomped hay
of cardinal flower, one of whose crimson blooms 
       thereby coaxing the bird

Where exactly? Where would a child go?
In my remembered country
       lie still and watch

with your belt removed, your boots untied
laced by grease and silt from the machinery of life—
All the hours are superfluous
       like the mushroom called wood ear


*

Source Texts:
Louise Gluck * Ales Steger * Rodrigo Dela Peña * James 
Richardson * Gillian Conoley * Ross Gay * Ross Gay
* Tracy K. Smith * Claribel Alegria * Louise Gluck
* Jude Nutter * Karen An-hwei Lee * Gabriela Mistral
* Tung-Hui Hu