i've been forever it seems going pole to pole
parallel one of two lines that never touch
i've seen landscapes hard going cross country
rural, flat, small towned, devilled dust land
i hang lazy low in hot summer and watch you
sag, humming, home for panting flights
taut, you are winter tight strung, your occasional hawk
ruffled, eyeing me balefully, prey watching
some connections we left three or four 
counties back by farm houses little
once i thought these infant links would transform
our energy into one current surge
but 
your chronic angers hiss past pole, pole, pole

"two power more"
another line, i sparked

someday when cracked insulation lays bare
our metal cores and we are cut
what then
melted
our molten bath boiling together
lines that parallel never touched
 

ray ostrander © 1997
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