The Meadow

this evening the meadow seems the essential thing

and because of it

what we talk about this evening

includes stalks and streams and frogs

and insects and eggs and blackbirds

and lack of worries about work contracts

rent contracts and other contracts

this evening

not far from us children are walking

hand in hand with their grown-ups

it is a meadow

true, there’s a city on top of it

From “Poetry Like Bread,” edited by Martin Espada (Curbstone Press: 332 pp., $15.95 paper)