Olive Off A Tree
for Eyotaru Olive

spoiled by the Gospels
into believing in miracles
into expecting them

these and parables
signs that Jesus once existed, actually
and that he is still somewhere about

I like what faith alone can reveal
can make come into being

I thought you were a picture
a place far away
if you existed that you existed
entirely upon another plane

that we are connected
have made contact
even by e-mail is unbelievable
is what is miracle to my mind

I ate a dilly, went back to bed
now I'm feeling a bit unwell

it's Independence Day today
in The Bahamas, July tenth
someone's coming by at 1 p.m.
a date, a day out

I must shift into gear
must ready myself

but what a treat this is
to have connected with Africa
with a photograph
from an online newspaper

earth beneath your feet
in that photograph
yellow-gold of Sahara sands

something about it all
pulled strings

I could not help but sing
even as I am doing now

dreaming up, storying up
stumbling over words, phrases
stuttering, trying to explain

that dilly I ate, bothering me
have I time sufficient
to make myself well

wish I were as well as when

was I ever well
life is as wonderful
as it has ever been

a miracle as profound at present
as when I was conceived
or March 30th when I was born

or that spring, 1976
when I was in love
with Maya Fisher

or when she went away
melted away

dissolved like the sun does
at the end of every single day

extinguished in the sea
for night to come on
to over come me

like a chick in an egg
like a womb lit by warmth alone

darkness which is said
to pervade Africa
in some figurative sense
in some insulting context

darkness I have always sought
since I had sense

wanting to bathe
and to clothe myself in it
if not actually, in its mystery

I've always loved nightfall
I like having to pick it up

it lifts me also
up to the moon and stars

what are you doing on the planet
or are you an olive off a tree

are olives common in your country
or do they only grow in Greece
or in holy scripture
or in the holy land


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2008
12:20 p.m. 10.07.08