This poem is taken from PN Review 152, Volume 29 Number 6, July - August 2003.

Four Poems

Robert Saxton

The Redbeard's Questionnaire

A Colloquy of Two Sages

Every lover is a corrective lover.
Every lover is the reproach of limitation.

A question, instructive lover, how did you get here?

Not hard to say:
    Along the impatient grasses of my beard,
    Along the milk streams of the milkmaid,
    Along the elfmound of the Joneses' nanny,
    Along the forearm of the ploughman's wife,
    Along the shelves of goodly cheeses
        away from the farm of the sun,
    Along the light of a summer moon,
    Along the fires off the shoulder of Orion,
    Along the green-eyed baby's navel-string,
    Along the green shoots on the branches of old stories.

A question, well-travelled lover, what is your name?

Not hard to say:
    Song of passion,
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