UNCLE MICHAEL - ALIAS GOD!

His hands(tobacco stained)
twisted & gnarled
knotted like an alive

piece of wood
scrawled gestures
across my mind

as the sick calf
bucked in his arms
& his quiet strength

- calmed:
'Shhhhhh...
shhhhhhh...****...****! '

he crooned
& the sound
soothed

and the veins
(line vines)
ran up & down

his arms
pumping crude life
like a sudden sketch

to suggest the gist of
rather than
the meaning of things.

and he walked
(& I ran)
towards Granny's garden

(like God tending Eden)
& the gate(a little hoarse)
sighed at his hand and

the leaves murmured
(like worshippers
in a church congregation)

& the sunlight
genuflected through the trees
and the trees wore socks & apples

a tablecloth
was laid
on a logan berry bush

and the young tree
gave herself to him
broke tenderly in his hand

and, the knife whistled &
out of the branch
came a man

and he told me
(& I believed him
'cos he was good as God & strong)

that the little wooden man
(the silent statue)
had been waiting

(all the time all ready made)
waiting to be released
from his prison of wood.

'All things...'he whispered
'all things are waiting
for youto call them.'

'Call them to come out...'
'Awake them...'
'Create them...! '

the rhododendrons
were blue with amazement
- at this revelation

a dragonfly
walked
upon the water

a butterfly became
infatuated
with a flower

me...?
I watched as
his hands talked...

...explaining things
that
could not be...said

and he took
my hand in his
and I understood

flowed
like a little stream
into his big river

felt God(close)
near at hand
and...smiling