I labored for years, weary in gardens,
kept snakes as pets
and picked apples for teachers
where flowers bloom’d in that same
space weeds spread,
where they’d share the same water,
gathering grace
in early stages of resemblance,
where fall winds sway faith like fruit
of fig trees behind protective leaves,
winds to heat the north
winds to chill the south
in eco-strains of progression
laboring in years to reap only good,
flex my ribs
at the gateway of resurrection.
Robert Savino, Suffolk County Poet Laureate 2015-2017, is a native Long Island poet, Board Member at the Walt Whitman Birthplace and winner of the 2008 Oberon Poetry Prize. Robert is co-editor of a bilingual collection of Long Island Italian Americans Poets (No Distance Between Us). His books include fireballs of an illuminated scarecrow and Inside a Turtle Shell.
