Terrain

love those singers
so filled from birth
with mountains
that crags show
in all their songs

same love
for those
with flatlands within
whose stories sprawl
toward long horizons

love for all holding back
oceans lakes and rivers
for those who pour forth tales
awash in flow and ebb
skimming surface then plunging in

in some a snap of hard heels
on pavement echoing
among brownstones and tenements
a subway jangle in every song
busy air in every breath

there may be a singer
whose songs offer no hint of a landscape
cannot imagine that
but it might be peaceful
to hear such things

until then praises
for the slices of this world
offered in each song or tale
small maps of memory’s terrain
melody in topography