If I Had Wheels or Love

I could make prayers or poems on and on,
Relax or labor all the summer day,
If I had wheels or love, I would be gone.

Spinning along the roadsides into dawn,
Feeling the flesh of lovers whom I’d lay
I could make prayers or poems on and on.

Whistling the hours by me as they drone,
Kissed on my breast and belly where I’d play
If I had wheels or love, I would be gone.

Over the next horizon toward the sun,
Deep in the shadows where I found the way
I could make prayers or poems on and on.

Along the country backroads flower-strewn,
Fondling your flanks, my dear, make clouds from clay
If I had wheels or love, I’d be gone.

Cool as the evening is and soft as fawn,
Warm as my fiddling fingers when they say
I could make prayers or poems on and on.
If I had wheels or love, I would be gone.

                                                            -Vassar Miller

Vassar Miller was a lover of Bach and chocolate ice cream.   She was both Baptist and Episcopalian.  Her life's work was "to serve God. And write."  Vassar Miller was born with cerebral palsy.  Each movement--each word out of her month--required strained effort, yet an even greater obstacle in her life were her feelings of shame about her disability "in light of society’s erroneous opinion."    Her poetry is tenacious.  It's gritty.  It's honest.  Whenever I read it, I can't help but feel movement.  Miller's energy holds me spellbound.

The life of Vassar Miller