muscled streaks
scud toward black hills
reckonings of water
blood-gorged barbs
burrow into slopes
earth & water
rocks woven into trees
upheave, compress
eons of water
cumuli whittle
to wattles, barnacles
molecular water
commutable sacs of self
karst, cenote
disappearing water
day beginning, day end
bird, beaver, bobcat
mingle at water
one child replaces another — Frances
for Layla, Elsa for Bea — every death
punches a hole in the universe, we all
stream through, unstoppable, like rain
like snow — compensation
for what has been lost, sunlight is backdrop
is scenery, is streaming down on
riprap, forgetting is the collapse
of language’s wave function [Waldrep]
speaking on a roll is speaking a wave of
eminent elegant words from a web
where they hang for safekeeping
now the webs sag, words falter
eminent might have been pertinent
though you feel the swell of eh . . .
exigent . . . though no word comes
besides, who is left to listen?
picture an auditorium waiting for words
like a domed arena, cots in neat rows
nurses washed up, wounded, alive
night & day rain, the trail
gleams dark with mud
hikers blister & corduroy
come freeze, every rut is recorded
I feel the trail, think of my boots
how not to sink them, the trail
feels boots, remembers deer
their weightless springing
cleavings at intervals
crossing bog, sleek pelts
fleeing, or without hunters, not fleeing
bed to feed to drink to bed
fawns glance back to locate
others between bare trees, angles
of oak leaves not fallen, feet
dark with earth, that cacophony
no wallets or phones, those were stolen
or let’s say, they walked to the beach
untethered, locals, noted a blue bunny
under a clump of grass, orphaned children
runaway mothers, the father compelled
by magnets, alchemy, ice — plimsolls
& strappy sandals, aspirins in a vacuum pak
aspirins for those who found them lost
their swimsuits spread on offshore rocks
bananas to fuel their strokes to reach
riptide, abandon of swirl & swept away
gasp, swallow — shoes as urns, vittles
& solace inside, bananas they fed to apes
they met on the sand, bananas the children
took on the dune buggy ride, aspirins
one stole from a kiosk, a small package
easy to palm, aspirins they would take
if rescued, prevented from taking their lives
plimsolls a pastel green, willow her favorite
tree, popple his — the sound of three p’s
let's say they carried harpoons but not
a net, off to spear blues, the glimmer
that fades the farther it travels from true
bananas stolen from farms along the way
gluey, meaty, like perfumed cheese
climbing the CAT track
between ski runs
signposted in four colors
past pipes & solar
ready to make snow
the nature center’s
taxidermied beasts
blue jays high on birches
needle ice bursting
thru autumn soil
nine of us reach the top
of Stark Mountain
three dogs, six people
we’re not together
except geographically
we share a dress code
zippers galore
multi-pocketed packs
bright merino beanies
in 36° sunshine
on a Stark’s Nest bench
eating designer snacks
the signal strong
for well-thumbed phones
at least three of us
slip & fall on ice
we’re okay, nothing broke
no missing pieces
the dogs — off leash
day-glo sweatered
nose to earth — ignore
our hubris, our greed
just as we ignore
every coral reef
every atoll nation
every climate refugee
destined for squalor
thanks to our behavior
hubbub of a city park, whisper of my mind
walking along a paved path, others talking
aloud, a boat — white strings, triangle
of flimsy cloth, silvery hoops & nails joining
three pieces of wood into a proposition
set loose on a pond, motion proof of a breeze
I stop to feel, the sail filling one way
the boat going another, what suggests
a boat will return? freed, it yields
to wind & water’s will, a wallowing hull
a luffing sail, how can a boat not
capsize? my watching can’t but jinx
the ride — best to let the question pass
it’s not my boat, every boat I fancy lost
