"For Phoebe" by Galen Green (circa 1970)

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For Phoebe



The dickey-bird on your window sill is singing
A lusty lyric to the simmering sun,
Who slyly peeks into the flower bed,
Where a daisy spreads herself, all undone,
Beneath the weight of a pandering honey bee,
While in another corner of the lawn,
A very young and rakish wild oat
Sows himself into the yielding ground.
But above it all, your piety reigns supreme
From the wooden back porch rail on which you lean
And shake your finger at each wicked creature
For its particular sin against God and Nature -
While the easy earth is mounted by the sky
And Summer runs His finger up your thigh.



by Galen Green



Copyright 1970; All Rights Reserved
(first published in The Wichita Free Press, 1970;
reprinted in Apple Grunt, 1971; excerpted here
from The Toolmaker’s Other Son, A Memoir by
Galen Green; rough draft copyright 2005;
All Rights Reserved.)


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