It feels like a late beginning.

Digging down toward the center,
pulling out brown, lifting in green
then tamping like a lover
settling his partner to sleep.

Enough water to welcome
the wizards then
let everything live, live.

Simple enough if you don’t
understand politics.

Green things certainly know
power and loss, survival, keeping
a head up against the wind.

These bended knees do their form
of praying to the gods of growth
then head inside to wash away the dirt.

Soon I’ll survey my odd domain
like a tsar or parent, scolder
of rabbits and squirrels,
a small strain of plant DNA
remaining in my heart and hands.

Among David Radavich’s poetry are two epics, AMERICA BOUND and AMERICA ABROAD, as well as MIDDLE-EAST MEZZE and THE COUNTRIES WE LIVE IN. His latest book is UNTER DER SONNE / UNDER THE SUN: German and English Poems from Deutscher Lyrik Verlag (2022).