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 Sandra McPherson’s most recent book is A Visit to Civilization (Wesleyan, 2002). She teaches at University of California, Davis. Email a friend >> Printable version >> |
Grouse
This water flows dark red
from alder tannin:
boot-stain river
between white rocks.
An ouzel, flannel-feathered,
sips the current up.
Mossgatherers
spread their patches
across a dry, flat turnaround.
They seem embarrassed,
want to shelter in the dark.
A coyote running in broad day;
stumps ruffling
with sulphur polypores
woodsy to the tongue,
woody to teeth. Early
yellow leaves paste river to its bed;
blackberries drop, the last,
many out of taste
and strictly smudge.
Puddles loop in the road:
Bottomland—
the foolhen
waits there for
the fool gun,
gray throat-down free in a burst,
the pose, the afterslump.
Carcass beside spirit.
O come to my hand, unkillable;
whatever continues, continue to approach. |
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