TOTEM
I shut down
all my memories
of my childhood
and the place
I was born
had to do so
because they
had gotten
out of control
were
overpowering me
taking me back
to a time without limbs
horrific venom.and
no ability
to walk
only slither and crawl
and there
in a bold new
brave new land
the mindful ones
wiping out rattlers and vipers
with pump-
action guns
for the land be safe and
clear and clean
not only so
but sacred
and exceptional
what was before but
a pile of bleached bones
a cairn beside a church
with
whitewashed walls
and
from ocean
to ocean
real regular worship
diamondback
the totem
by which you
might indeed
come
to approach me.
poems 2 die for 