by Neal Whitman

Gypsy music in a dream
Attracts a lion to man and mandolin
Rousseau inspires the poet to capture
Contours of a ballad in crystalline color
It is a dark mysterious song
A distant murmur under the moon.

“Let me climb
On the mountain, mountain
Rumors of warm dawn
Come through the olive grove
And sing an anthem of absence.”

• Garcia Lorca