for Joshua Dodds
He speaks in a voice with eyes:
eyes that hear,
an ear that touches,
a hand that reaches around your heart
and pumps it back to life
or caresses gently
if that heart has not yet died—
a baritone profundo
that you feel before you perceive,
like a skein of startled geese,
the thundering of stallions or bison,
or sheet lightning aback the hills.
Listen to a voice that has known.