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One Country (Free verse) by poetandknowit

You are standing in Doan's house, built strong to fight the upslope in an alluvial valley west of Fresno, hidden from the desert by fading hills revealing secrets one year at a time. In this place we can meet without discretion, where harvest ended long before these early days of October when darkness does not bend troubling even stars navigating from horizon to horizon, and the wind's new chill still feels thick and fertile blowing past fields barren in bounty. In this dream, I can wrap my arms around you as the woman in a photograph I found on a street some years ago of a place I have never been, although now it is Mendoza or La Rioja, and you are staring away from the camera all the while knowing it is there. In this dream I come as teacher and apprentice to you humming with Gardel's birdsong in the kitchen heat, sweat lights your skin, En unos labios ardiente dejar una promesa hips swaying, arms kneading flat dough for semolas quiero calmar los enojos siempre mintiendo amor and sweet bread bakes in the oven In this place I have bent to my knees, prayed for disappeared mothers and stolen sons, swallowed the dirt of your country, just to feel a part of you.

poetandknowit 15-Oct-02/10:26 AM
Yes, but no matter how much dirt I swallow. How many nights I stay there, how many books I read of there, I will never be it. And there in lies the poem. Doan is a photographer. The "house: is a reference to his series "Dream House" where he places women in their most beautiful sense into a place where he can only go with his camera, which in this case is a reflection of his mind. It cannot be real. The to is "to you" but I dropped the "you" down. I had both out, but then I thought the reader would think the narrator was "humming." Suggestions? Does it work without? I am not sure of the song title, but I will dig it up. And yes INTRANSIT both Mendoza and La Rioja are near wine country (although Chile makes much better wine) and are agricultural hubs of Argentina. Much like the San Joaquin Valley is an agricultural hub in the states, but not wine country. There is an intended parallel. That is where the title comes in.




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