– 229 –

Hills

Who put the el
in the word, world,
changing things forever?

It must have been later:
not in the beginning.

An old woman perhaps
—in the days before writing
when words dwelt in the body—
resting her tongue a little sooner than usual,
by chance and lovingly, on the roof
of her mouth before sounding the d
that is always ending the word word.

The roof of the world appeared.
All along the horizon. Layers
and layers of hills, lovely
and potentially touchable.