In an open field at dusk   To footfalls, I awoke   Marching ants across my temple zone   Their feet had no intention    They followed some magnetic draw   Prisoners of their destination      From the slats of the factory come   (where once they did make rails)   Old dad's peculiar songs   He didn't know I was listening    So he crowed out nice and long   To the spiders and the lumber and the dust of his conquests    and his hunger and his loss   I heard his feet rejoice   I heard him tap his cane   As if he had his own revue   On stage at the _____      I caught his words in my open mouth   I gagged and choked and spit them out   I heard him turn as he did hear   My tiny heartbeat in his ear   I was already running   Oh, I heard him coming      Shrapnel spinning from his wheels   The sounding arms rake for my heels   I know then roll and hit my face   And I said these magic words      My dove is home   Her breast is warm   My dove is home      And I said these magic words      I've fallen down and out of the anthill for days      My dove is home   Her breast is warm    My dove is home