lost balloon

how unlooked-for
to be let go

red barberries

an awful Christmas carol
stuck in my head

the darkness giving up
its sassafras

From time to time a flash of panic, as if I’ve forgotten something — but I can’t think what.

missing mountaintop
in the pit
of my stomach

acres of silence
one red squirrel

on an empty stomach
trying not to stare

through bare branches
with its horns out

the falling snowflakes
one brown leaf

I was trying to find another world. It was right here all along.

hunter’s cap
a bell-like sound
from the raven’s throat

of the wolf
mother tree

the mountain cut open
by a new road

you too
have never existed