If, as Kit Smart said, toads have compensation
_ _for being toads, “since there are stones whose
constituent particles are toads,” this particular
_ _Algonquian helps constitute a granite range
whose high inflections interweave. He flows
_ _between subject and object, neither and both.
He is, as the linguists say, non-configurational,
_ _and like the wind up there no one can tell
whence he came or where he goes. He’s all
_ _action, all tiny jerks whose frames overlap
so quick they almost look seamless, impulses
_ _received and renewed just about at the
same time and at the same fast speed but
_ _as if that is too slow and he could go faster
if he really tried. Impulse and impulse,
_ _each thought an impulse tried successfully
many times over. Try saying him.
_ _Try thinking him with no words.

Brian Swann has published many books in a number of genres: poetry, short fiction, children’s books, translation, and Native American studies, including Words in the Blood: On Translating Native American Literature (University of Nebraska Press, 2011) and his most recent poetry collection, _In Late Light (_Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013). He lives in Manhattan and Vega, New York. (updated 10/2013)