Samuel Claiborne
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Back to Poetry

Can the Cactus Know the Salamander

Can the outstretched arms of the Mantis
Know the incatching gaze of the Tarsier
Its lambent eyes reflecting mist and green

What of ocean and mountain
Can they talk of salinity and cloudburst
Rain shadow and thermocline

The mesa and the
Flat asphalt sprawl
Can they abide together
The taste and smell of
Hot summer thundershower
The cracking chafe of invading seed
And the friable winds of winter

Can the continents feel their own drift
And do they feel the Milkweed silks
That caress them with a ghost’s touch
But a touch nonetheless

Do the resinous Turpentine Pines
Recognize the refinery’s fumes
Or Freesia’s tantric scent
In their own tang

And audacious sociable Crow
What does he think of us
Does he laugh at our differences
Or cock his head and puzzle
Over his nagging sense of kinship

These clues of consonance whisper
Informing every thing
Of every other thing
Exchanging math for sense
Schemata for intuition
Form for function
And back again

One has only to listen
Because the conversation
Is endless