by dave caserio

Even until I die, hooked jawed, in bare breath gulp, rise
To leaf rotted air, above gulf of river bottom gravel,
May the ghost jiggle out, spread, over rut of sand
And egg to shear again toward being again a song.
May it leap as it squawks, as black-eyed swans
Who screech the air, or peasants who pipe,
Whistle and wail, bang at tin to startle crows.
Or the bark and cackled whine of arctic fox
In first fire of summer heat as they arc, nip.
Or a bubbled yip of marrow through the bone,
Syllabic hiss that fissures shell, stone,
To ask again, “Who will I love? What will I be?
When, shall the rain come?

Dave Caserio is the author of This Vanishing from CW Books, and Wisdom For A Dance In The Street, a CD of poetry and music from Gazoobi Tales. A recipient of a Fellowship in Poetry award from the New York State Foundation of the Arts, Dave has worked with various community outreach programs, the Humanities Montana Speakers Bureau, Arts Without Boundaries, the Billings YMCA/Writer’s Voice “Poets on the Prairie” and for the Billings Clinic Cancer Center conducting writing workshops for cancer survivors. He is a founding member of the writer’s collective, Big Sky Writing, and Producer of a series of poetry-in-performance events, A Feast For The Hunger Moon, WordSongs, Arc of the Communal, and I Conjure A Stubborn Faith, that combine poetry, music, dance and the visual arts.