Experience Claims Innocence
David Baird
Experience claims innocence
too often and too soon:
Either maiming, or proclaiming
early health from ages-wound.
Mere, though, is one island
where such magic is marooned,
And noble savage converts
sport in wild glad costume.
Grinning skulls dance jangling
next to purple eagle’s plume,
And shameless flesh shines mighty
under slightest of festoons.
In this jungle sprung from garden
rhythm grief and life attuned;
In a final ancient childhood
always wise, surprised, and new.