the forest is fully awake for
doomed blooms
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.
Earth Day
millipede on the green
bathroom wall
waves passing through
its carpet of feet
sun-drenched spring woods
finding a dead leaf
to wipe my brow
fiddleheads
every hour less spring,
more escape
gravel mountain
a waterthrush
ready for business
football stadium
pear trees advertising
for sex
our mountain of lost hemlocks
speaking in moss
Appalachian spring
the pale green sugar
maples’ sun
Dutchman’s breeches
trembling in the breeze
of passing trucks
unfinished
with its commitments
living stump
pole timber
going on and on
about class
all that effort
to pose as a corpse
wake-robins
