Wendy Videlock

[putnamwitches]

Wendy Videlock lives on the western slope of the Colorado Rockies.

My Moses
by Wendy Videlock


Big Jack and his walking stick
live on the ridge. Navajo
orphan kids dance for him,
bobcat urine's in the weeds,
the shotgun barrel's up his sleeve,
a Persian coin is on the wind.
The Chinese Mountains smell the moon
and arch their backs. I tell him, Jack,
there's times I wish I was living in
canvas France, the old west,
a picture book, the Sea of
Tranquility, or even in
the den near the hot spring.
He says, kid, to hell with


phantom limbs; spring is a verb,
a wish is a wash, a walking stick
is a gottdam wing.