saint francis and the sow

the bud

stands for all things,
even for those things that don't
flower,
for everything flowers, from
within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary 
to reteach a thing its loveliness, 
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within,
of self-blessing; 
as Saint Francis
put his hand on the creased
forehead
of the sow, and told her in words
and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow, and 
the sow
began remembering all down her 
thick length,
from the earthen snout all the way
through the fodder and slops to
the spiritual curl of the tail,
from the hard spininess spiked out 
from the spine
down through the great broken 
heart
to the sheer blue milken
dreaminess spurting and 
shuddering
from the fourteen teats into the 
fourteen mouths sucking and 
blowing beneath them:
the long, perfect loveliness of sow.  

By galway kinnell