Feed

by Lance Larsen

Feed the road your best intentions, it demands
not sandal or boot but blistered foot.

Feed time a thank you, watch it dice
your life into hours and hang them on a calendar.

Feed awe to the sky, the only check
it knows how to cash gleams cerulean blue.

This craving never stops. The creek rolls stones,
stones beg audience of the moon,

moon blesses smoldering fire,
fire wants nothing but to lick nearby grass,

grass writes a contract, green on top, fine print
underneath, blank for your name,

which ants rearrange as dusk and carry
off to keep the dead alive, the unborn hungry.

From Backyard Alchemy, University of Tampa Press, 2009.

Lance Larsen is the author of three collections of poetry, Erasable Walls, In All Their Animal Brilliance and Backyard Alchemy. He is a professor at Brigham Young University in Utah.

*Photo courtesy of killbox.