If you got free by any strange behavior
       

If you got free by any strange behavior,
stranger than what they put you in there for,
lurk arch and cunning under maple trees
when cones of searchlights penetrate the groves.

When they have passed upwind of you, take care
to cross and recross as you take the stream's
easy meander through the valley floor.
They will have circled back by now, however,

so when you hear the baying of the dogs
(you will think haying, will imagine hounds),
don't lag, because they've found your trail again,
but also know that distances are tricky,

topographical extremities
of mind will render sound closer than it
appears, and if you think that you're made strange
by any free behavior, let them come.

Tweet

Copyright © 2013 Paul Bone All rights reserved
from Nostalgia for Sacrifice
David Robert Books
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission