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TWO POEMS   
by Lola Haskins    

 

THE SAND-HILL CRANES

The blue air fills with cries.
The cranes are streams, rivers.
They danced on the night prairie,
leapt at each other, quivering.

The long bones of sand-hill cranes
know their next pond. Not us.
When something is too beautiful,
we do not understand to leave.

 

THREE GRAINS

Barley

Sturdy children, setting off for school
along the golden street.


Wheat

The thin, crested heads of birds.
What if, startled, they all suddenly flew?


Rye

She is too delicate for wind.
See how she pulls her green scarf over her head.

  


LOLA HASKINS has published seven books of poetry, most recently The Rim Benders (Anhinga, 2001). BOA will publish Desire Lines: New and Selected Poems in 2004. Her work has been broadcast on NPR and on BBC, and has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Southern Review, Georgia Review, New England Review, Prairie Schooner, London Review of Books, London Magazine and elsewhere.

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