Summer Hymn

Summer Hymn

–             -after the Finnish of Pentti Saarikoski

1.

I took the long path to the ocean

I had old songs in mind oak trees stood out like people who have come home

& walking I saw it was a folk tale I knew I was crossing a bridge of shadows

& love me or not I said & yellow flowers what are they

(I didn’t know)

2.

as a boy I worked for many months to starve myself the summer I watched the scouts lower the flag & the hospital settled into night. those boys folded Old Glory like Marines I was at the window: 17 and maybe a hundred pounds

a doctor from Ghana asked me what I was singing.

I said it was the holy art of dying for two voices.

I was anorexic smarty pants

3.

we die in summer even though the last thing we see is ice on the pond

& we live again in summer though we can’t explain

4.

the lame God used to live really live sailed up the Nile got dirt on his hands.

his feet were soft metal, gold, imperfect

today, early june

I lay my head down in the temple of the god

Hermes Endendros

first god withered

first broken in the high branches

first god of summer…

                     –in memory of my mother

S.K.