some
lines too avoid
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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