Swings

“Hang up the swing of love today!” ~ Kabir

What kind of swing
would that be,
Kabir?

An innocent swing
like the one
in the garden
that was slung
from snake Satan’s
red apple Tree?

That one left two
of God’s stripes
across the backs
of Eve’s and Adam’s
by then too knowledgeable
knees.

I’d prefer to begin
in a soft
canvas swing –
that’s hung
from a line off a tall maple tree –
that’s cupping my hips
as I stretch and pull back –
bare legs raised in the wind –
and then springs with me
in warm wine summer air,
holding me
as I accelerate:
feeling like a soprano of speed –
my eyes reflecting sky –
as I go towering into falsettos of space
cresting gravity’s wave,
until I’m free to let go and go high.

David was The Peninsula Pulse’s featured poet in August of 2005, and a poetry profile of him also appeared in the June 10, 2011 issue. His poems have appeared in Fox Cry, Knock and the Pulse. He has received honorable mentions in previous Hal Grutzmacher Writers’ Exposes, and last year received the second place award. He also received an honorable mention for the 2010 Muse Prize. He teaches poetry composition for the Door County Learning in Retirement program in Sturgeon Bay. His March 2011 Chapbook, Shedding My Three Piece Birthday Suit was reviewed in Issue 105 of Verse Wisconsin.