melting through

the heritage
of snow fleas

unseasonably warm

a woodpecker’s
urgent knocks

to the mountain
its hiking stick

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

you too
have never existed

the dragon in my rock
will never hatch

letting the wind help
fold my map

in my earliest memories
you were granite

a walker all in white
autumn mountain

a fragment of forest
preserved in shale

black bear

the plucked banjo string
of a tanager