R.A. Burleigh Poems

We sit while children crawl about happy
Toys are scattered like leaves
Red and orange and brown from my old house at 407
I never saw so many leaves, or so many children
...

Do you understand why
The ancient people had so many gods
For air, water, love, warfare, fire, afterlife, storms
For home, hearth, travel, conception, weather
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I was frightened with every step the babies took
It wasn't right, it wasn't fair
It was my mother's old nightmare, not mine
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I am walking through a distant land
The drumbeats of a great fractioned crowd
The incorporation of time and scattered blood
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There was nobody like Gayle Sayers
Nobody who could cut a field like it was a piece of paper

There was nobody like Jim Thorpe who could run all day
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1
I have wiggled away from death, walked away from fighting
Not since high school football have I longed for violence
Finally the mud tired me, I felt confused, even in victory
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For Colin
Glad to hear from you
Although I thought it was someone else
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He would not go, not cease, not die
Despite the pain that he had seen
Despite the brutality he had seen
Despite his body cuts and boisterous bruises
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for your Highschool graduation
in the deepest silence of my fooldad heart
eureka, Yreka, Wilderville, I shouted
at times lost in memories
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The boy and the man are climbing the tree
hands holding to th neck-
laughing at the lower earth
...