Returned to the Yaak Cabin, I Overhear an Old Greek Song

Back at the west window, Basin Creek
Stumbling its mantra out in a slurred, mid-summer monotone,
Sunshine in planes and clean sheets
Over the yarrow and lodgepole pine-
We spend our whole lives in the same place and never leave,
Pine squirrels and butterflies at work in a deep dither, Bumblebee likewise, wind with a slight hitch in its get-along.
Dead heads on the lilac bush, daisies
Long-legged forest of stalks in a white throw across the field
Above the ford and deer path,
Candor of marble, candor of bone-
We spend our whole lives in the same place and never leave,
The head of Orpheus bobbing in the slatch, his song Still beckoning from his still-bloody lips, bright as a bee’s heart.