[He Lived—Childhood Summers]

He lived—childhood summers thru bare feet then years of money’s lack and heat beside the river—out of flood came his wood, dog, woman, lost her, daughter— prologue to planting trees. He buried carp beneath the rose where grass-still the marsh rail goes. To bankers on high land he opened his wine tank. He wished his only daughter to work in the bank but he’d given her a source to sustain her— a weedy speech, a marshy retainer.