#MIDDLEBURY
Walk On, Walk Away
Afaa Michael Weaver
Can we just stay here in the space where our loud laughing
won’t disturb the mausoleum of St. Peter, three times denying
the purple iris, can we hobble the horses to the hitching post
in front of the post office and let everything fall out of where
we put it to be delivered, can we call the night choir of crickets
down here to make the road home sing while the lightning bugs
show us the way to a happy wages of sin so then we will not dare
cry when the trumpet hits the high note of getting up in the morning,
going back to be counted by the straw bosses, and to count them,
making note of how sure this Earth is, this world of work we define
ourselves, as long as we know it will need us, as long as guarantees
paint themselves against the invisible ley lines pulling mountains
together, summoning snow caps in California over the broad brown
hills laying up to hear God’s whims like fallen but contented angels.
About this poem
“‘Walk on, Walk Away’ is intended to celebrate the spirit of American laborers. The poem is from my newest manuscript, ‘A Righteous Union of Things,’ a collection of poems exploring my own life as a veteran of 15 years (1970-1985), as a semi-skilled factory worker in my native Baltimore, and, by extension, an exploration and celebration of America’s working-class culture.” – Afaa Michael Weaver
About Afaa Michael Weaver
Afaa Michael Weaver is the author of “The City of Eternal Spring” (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014). He teaches in Drew University’s M.F.A. program and lives in West Cornwall, Conn.
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day@poets.org.
(c) 2016 Afaa Michael Weaver. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
