crack open earth & rock rises
pressured, scarred
a cure for what we’ve lost
if rocks could draw
they would draw gods like rocks
before we spoke
we danced with rocks & time
sang rock, boulder, ledge
shape maker, wind breaker
rock, like spirit, abides —
weathered, spidered
all year long mossed
quarried from place
a rock ledge falls apart
as we do, molecule by molecule
shattered
papers we sign, the judge we stand before
remove the last scraps of her authority
morph her into a pawn we’ll move at will
though not to capture castle, knight, or king
her personhood is threadbare, a shroud
holding no one, if we tell her she’s hungry
she eats, tell her she’s tired she sleeps, meds
have made her mild, like snow without cold
bread without salt, we pretend it’s kindness
to keep her alive, to tag & warehouse her, to
forget her, as she is forgetting us, will forget
over time the last rags of us, she’s not yet
so far gone that she won’t notice her delivery
to this well-ordered, emptier, blanker space
I create someone I value
feed her for most of my life
fail to foresee
the wave form collapse
the classic alternatives
I’ve tried to reject
branching fails to stop
here different, here same
the wobble
close to death, close to life
skunk, its broad yellow stripes rocking
side to side, walks the trail ahead of me
fresh musk rises from old snow
skunk wobbles, rear feet stumble
still, it sways along, pauses to bare
a pointed face, what does it wonder?
walks until something tells it it’s gone
too far, turns & rushes toward me
I leave the trail, take up a stout stick
skunk struggles back the way we came
toward its burrow, I hope, to wait
to die, of rabies, that virus, in the wild
