Fuel

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In the poem, "Bill's Beans," dedicated to her mentor, William Stafford, Naomi Shihab Nye writes of finding beans, "under the leaves, they're secretly long and curling./ I pull a perfect question mark and two lean twins, / feeling the magnetic snap of stem, the ripened weight." In this poetry collection, Nye continually shows us how to look "under the leaves" as she writes on topics ranging from the border families of southern Texas, small ferns and forgotten books, to Jews and Palestinians in the Middle East.

Hidden
If you place a fern
under a stone
the next day it will be
nearly invisible
as if the stone
has swallowed it.

If you tuck the name of a loved one
under your tongue too long
without speaking it
it becomes blood
sigh
the little sucked-in breath of air
hiding everywhere
beneath your words.

No one sees
the fuel that feeds you.

© BOA Editions, Ltd 1998