Manifesto

by Dixie J-Elder

I have been mostly men
(or suicides) in my past lives
so what was the lesson?

Value your friendships
whenever you find them
Savour time alone

Soak in the sun, dip oat bread
in golden olive oil, lie back
and drink the wine of youth.

Let rain fall into deep wells,
draw it up and quench the thirst
of cherry, peach and apple trees
Inhale the scents of those blossoms

Fall in love madly, sing all night
laugh without thinking, leap up
& recite poetry as if it were
a manifesto for the ideal government.

Be fair to peasants and musicians
(if you are wealthy) If you're poor
dance a furious dance of freedom
holding wild burning branches.

When death sneaks into the shadows
of your darkened room, face it down,
point it out with no trembling finger.

Then lie down, allow angels to guide you
into fantastical colours never seen
on earth, spectrums invisible to human eyes
suddenly vivid as we fly into the heart's learning
that mystical self judgment which flashes
as bright as a thousand comets
before we return and return again

Dixie J-Elder grew up in a 1950 DeSoto, traveling across America as her father mapped deserts, swamps, mountains, hills and coastlines for the US Geological Survey. She began writing at age 4. She studied Medieval Literature in a Shenandoah Valley college, earning tuition by working on a goat farm and in the school dining hall. Dixie lives in Colorado with her anthropologist/actor husband and two Humane Society refugee cats.