Publication of this book was supported by a grant from the Northampton Arts Council.
72 pages, $14.00
ISBN: 0-9660459-8-X
© 2005
The Disappearing Letters
by Carol Edelstein
Earth Signs
See — each ant staggers into the nest
with a dream-shaped crumb.
There they go, there they go — the swallows
who were late for school, doing
their extra arithmetic.
Stand here long enough and a dragonfly
will perch on your index finger,
the first note of hundreds.
Hear the plop of a palm-sized stone
hefted into the pond? It is a frog moving head first
toward center, squeezing those legs
that would be wings if water were air.
The earth must be glad: why else
would these great clouds lying low in the grass
seem like the doffed hats of giants leaving a party?
Or very cruel, to make this white violet,
then hide it under a leaf.