The Poem

Roots

Roots


The blood that 

Flows through me Comes of ancient 

stock Race of mendicants

endlessly on the move

Ascetic, saturnine 

slow to trust 

Quick to betray 

Dust of other lands

On their feet 

scholars among them

But indifferent householders

My ancestor’s flowing beard 

Homage to the sun

All that is gone now 

Wanderlust dissipated

By fenced homes, office desks

I warm my hands

Over the slow burning embers.