The Pilgrim is Bridled and Bespectacled

 

World, I honor you.
After everything
we’ve been through

I honor you and take you with me
up the mountainside
where we will live
in wonderment.

I take you to the desert
where we shrivel like worms
and become tongues
for other people to kiss with.

World, there are two baskets
on my back.
Fill them. Fill them with fruit
and more fruit.

Or fill them with whatever
is customary
but tell me it is fruit.
Call it something good.

World, some have satisfied their thirst.
But I am the crying-out animal
who can see in the dark.
Forgive me.

Bridget Lowe

 

This poem first appeared in Ploughshares and was reprinted in Best American Poetry 2011. Poem copyright 2011 Bridget Lowe, all rights reserved, used by permission of the author.

Read about Bridget Lowe.

See more work from video artist Angella Kassube.

This motionpoem is presented in collaboration with Best American Poetry 2011 (Scribner), with thanks to David Lehman, series editor.