California's former poet laureate Al Young is writing an original poem for us on the first Friday of each month this year. For March, he asks "Did She Who Made The Lamb -- Make The MGM Lion, Too?"
March: "Did She Who Made the Lamb Make the MGM Lion, Too?"
Did she who made the lamb make the MGM lion, too?
No Hollywood hurrah, no roar, no Big Sur purr
can coolly calm or claim you, whether for weeks
or days or nights you blow cold or warm or you blow
wet or hot or not at all. Tell us now, will you tango?
Will you waltz? Will you boogie? Will you guanguanco?
Will you even dance? Or just throw down and march?
Marshlands of the Golden State, all you ancient,
mushy wetlands -- baylands, swamps, marshes,
bogs; lungs of our coastlines, raw river- and lake-
and creek-sweetening filters -- unite! You've still got
plenty to lose. From Long Beach to Fremont
to Sacramento, Sheep Ranch on up to Arcata and
the Great Washoe Basin, you'd better watch yourself.
In the run-off and run-up to spring anything goes.
(c) 2012 Al Young
Al Young served as California's Poet Laureate from 2005 to 2008. Throughout this year he'll be reading an original California poem for us near the start of each month.
