For Jānis/John Vilums, March 2006

Two names
1 man
Two lands
1 home
Two tongues
1 sense
Two tones
1 song
Two eyes
1 vision
Two hands
1 heart
Ten fingers of
changing lengths
To sure
count
and
recount
the
many
fern flowers
of
Jāņi
that
gracefully
blaze
upward
as the
quiet
Daugava
flows
knowing
Rīgas Jūras Līcis
is ever
sooner
so
nearer
so
freer than
an
oak-lined
Scioto
or
a grey-foamed
Baltijas Jūra.