THE WHITMAN ISSUE

Patricia Gray

WILDNESS BREAKING IN

Within me, the unlimited plow, farmlands,
...........and the English settler's greed,
...........the low meanness of the moralist preacher.

And in me, the pocked city streets, odor of baking
...........wafting from windows, the tawdry nightclubs
...........and P Street Beaches, the rock-ridden park--
...........it's foliage green down the city's red throat--
...........frail jonquils on hillsides trembling--the jay's sharp call.

Within me a bureaucracy working--its windows
...........permanently sealed, low rows of PCs humming,
...........rumors of murders with anger and without--
...........the cold seizing of life.

And, in me the rending shriek that today splits the dull hum
...........of work, the terrible wrenching gut-cry of the woman
...........whose son was shot, the dropped phone and stunned
...........stillness among us, waves of anger and pain cracking open...

rain smashing against glass--a wildness
...........breaking in, its thundering masculinity--
...........the taking without permission in the heat
...........of day, with only a promise of cool.

Then the slowing down,
...........the whirring and clogging machinery
...........chugging the District to a stop, sirens
...........shooting through consciousness like a drug
...........in the vein. Rain plundering down, setting
...........the bloodroot throbbing in the vacant lot, as

we watch from windows or street corners,
...........with protection--without--hunkering
...........down, then the new thrust: to know ourselves
...........all brothers--mysterious, frightening brothers--
...........for the blood ties that hold us, bind us.
...........We are not safe.

Patricia Gray grew up in the Shenandoah Valley and has lived in Washington, DC for 20 years. Her MFA degree in poetry is from the University of Virginia. Since 1994, she has coordinated the Poetry at Noon program at the Library of Congress. Her book Rupture was recently published and includes the poem that appears here. Patricia has received artist fellowships in poetry from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. She lives and works on Capitol Hill and is fascinated not only with Whitman's work but also his life and times in the Nation's Capital.

To read more by this author:
Patricia Gray
Patricia Gray: DC Places Issue
Patricia Gray: Poets in Federal Government Issue