the wren sings down
another stream
Author: Dave Bonta
I live in an Appalachian hollow in the Juniata watershed of central Pennsylvania, and spend a great deal of time walking in the woods. My books of poetry include FAILED STATE: HAIBUN, ICE MOUNTAIN: AN ELEGY, BREAKDOWN: BANJO POEMS, and ODES TO TOOLS.
unseasonably warm
a woodpecker’s
urgent knocks
siren
in the bare sycamores
evening sun
January dawn
a ladder rattling
atop a van
my first forest
56 years later
with heron legs
hat brim
going down with the sun
snow man
rooftop view
a dish
for the neighbors’ TV
dishes done
the sink returns
my gaze
snowy streetlamp
a dog-walker’s
puffs of breath
New Year’s day
some leftover darkness
in my mug
returning
to the mountain
its hiking stick
longest night
between the strips
of moonlight
