Listen to James Longenbach reading this poem. One grew into a pear tree, Bearing fruit. Another, dissatisfied
With created things,
Withdrew: chameleon
Blending with the branch. Climbing
Their stairs, I saw complete
What they’d seen
Rising: a dome
An intelligence
Hovering above the streets
To cover us all.
Highways, strip malls.
Hercules lifting Antaeus
Pelvis to pelvis,
Earth to earth.
One became a sparrow,
Joined the flock.
When his singing aroused
Suspicion, he exchanged his voice
For a peacock’s,
The solitary
Darkness of God.
One became a river.
One raised sheep.
