Offered Images

Lake a lid of asphalt gray
                 One for the truth in hiding
Birchbark split in twenty ways
                 One for the hard deciding
Rosehip bright as prick of blood
                 One for the writhing wrench of birth
Fronds of fen-sprung ferns unfurl
                 One for the lusciousness of Earth

Lilac rays of aster stars
                 One for the eyelashed tender young
Ashfruit blaze in laddered leaves
                 One for the rage of songs unsung
Fishrib-slim pink fireweed frames
                 One for the caring hands of wives
Fugue of fungus up a trunk
                 One for the burly working lives

Lightning-butchered Norway spruce
                 One for the witnessing of pain
Maple dipped in tangerine
                 One for the pleasures that remain
Veiny yellow elder waves
                 One for the falling into graves
Burst and sodden thistlepods
                 One for the changing of the gods

Simple swerving cattail arc
                 One for the mercy that is art
Berry crown atop a stalk
                 One for wisdom’s silent walk
At last the clustered eyeflower blooms.
                 One for the opening of wombs

First published in CALYX