Prodigal Journey

From the west,
the heart speaks,

its voice changing
on the journey

east through desert
into sand and bone.

When it finds
a river, swims

drinks, purifies
it's vision-

confesses
its afflictions

to the faithful salmon,
hunting bear and

black-tipped
cedar cones, then

thunderstorm,
the nervous deer,

the waving fields of corn
recognize the accent

of its origon, its slow
and burning song.

Whose ear abandons
innocence; what leaf

yields and falls
half-mourning,

what home prepares
it's entryways, its rooms

for the returning
of the prodigal?