I almost miss the deer
that stands still as a heron
on the hillside
on the other side
of the parkway—those long legs
I envy slightly bent.

A male cardinal flaps its wings, red
as patinaed barn doors.

A true sign of August:
the prairie bluestem
has grown taller than me.
Before I turn onto
the western stretch
of the trail, I realize

a simile is like a poem written
by a junior high student.

A metaphor is

a cross-genre piece
telegraphed from an older poet
who recalls a senior level high
on psychedelics. Suburban
turkeys are hesitant aunts.
An invisible and unflappable woman

of a certain age, a female cardinal
flies by. I am soon a turtle

that traverses the morning
dew-drenched grass
beside the lake
that is bleeding
onto the trail
in a true becoming.

You want to walk on words
in sidewalk slabs
(the way you can
in cities with names
that begin with “saint”)
and seek shade
beneath a purple
leaf plum tree.
You say hi to a man
with low vision
just beyond a park bench
placed in a clearing
surrounded by wild
flowers gone wild. You
want to believe he sees
beyond. You
want to ask him
if he thinks summer
might have become too full
of life—thick
with a palette
of too many shades
of green. You want
to know who else loves
winter because you get
to stay awake
while others sleep.
Get to pretend
to be dead. You want
the robins to know
when you see
a hammock smile,
you smile back.
You want to pause
before an abundance
of silver mound
in a front yard garden
where the sidewalk bleeds
and bends into the parkway
trail. You want to ask
the duck in the foreground
if it sees
the perfectly framed
row of rose-colored tall grass
before a row of taller prairie
reeds before the lake
too. You want to join
the big black floppy dog
that swims in each
of the seven pools.
Instead, you spin
the stem to a velvety
wine-colored leaf
between your thumb
and index finger.

You see the storm before
tiny hail stones ping off
my long-billed cap
as I run the trail. You know

three poems I’ve written
about you will be published
before I receive
the acceptance email.

You hear the robin sing
before she opens her mouth.
You smell the wild roses
along East Chop Drive

before I reach the island.

You hear my ginger scent
shatter into tiny pieces
on the bathroom floor
before I put it on the shelf.

You taste the moonlight
before I catch it
on the tip of my tongue—
every time.

You swim across the wake
before the dinghy with my name on it
is dragged from the rocky beach
into the water. You laugh

at the bubbles
before I find the maker
machine on the porch
to a century and a half old hotel.

You say “tragic”
before it happens.

You sense the plane
taking off before I board
to fly back
to Cleveland to attend

your funeral. You wave good-bye

to the fog before it drapes
the sky above the ocean,
concealing all doubt.
You see the ferry emerge

on the horizon before
it leaves Woods Hole.
You wipe my tears before
I feel dampness on my cheek.

Were those pigeons
on the window sill yesterday
fighting, or? A female cardinal tilts
her head and flutters
her wings, and I’m in
love. Robins and rabbits
(mostly tiny ones)
dart in and out
of the prairie grass
and abundance
of wildflowers. A great blue
heron on the southern bank
of Cedar Lake shows no
fear beside the trail
as I pass. Me, startled, it,
so still. Did the squirrel fall,
or was it pushed,
from the tree in Kenwood Park’s
low land? Even from this distance,
I hear the thump—then stillness.

It rains more
on Fridays in summer. That great blue
heron standing long-legged
(and bending)

in your path is the same
bird you saw wading in another
lake a month ago. The red-
winged blackbird

that slashed the air
behind the back
of your skull can tell
you’re becoming


[ambivalent | deliberate | asexual |
disinterested | astounded | distilled]


The hens and toms
congregating across the street
and giant island swan floating
among reeds halfway

across the country
don’t care
what you are
(or how) becoming.

Each drop of water
is connected
to the next.
An ocean murmurs
inside me. Even here,
among prairie grasses
and deer half hidden
within a grove of cedars
and birches, shifting
tides define me.

If I could not taste you,
coffee, would I still want you?

If I could not hear you,
song, would I still play you?

If I could not see you,
sky, would I still believe in you?

If I could not smell you,
wildfire, would I still fear you?

If I could not touch you,
island, would I still be alive?

I’ve been bumping
into trees my whole life.

The mushroom tales
and solve for infinity equations

we’ve dreamed up—
only possible when arms

and bark collide. The way
we shade the wood ducks

and mallards and
Canada geese and rock

pigeons and robins and
red-winged blackbirds

and one great blue heron

beside the wetland island
inside the northern limb

of the lake. The way
their bumping space

could only arise
from the gnarled oak

growing sideways
over the water.

A weekend in the waiting
room, she’s afraid
for the ducklings she hasn’t seen
in days. In the waiting
room, she’s hoping
the mama has hidden them
in the cattails—
in the lake’s waiting
room where we can’t
find anything beyond
ourselves. Desperate to know.
Murky outbursts tucked inside
the city’s light pollution
our only entertainment.

a question
I cannot answer.
I might ask the latest

brood of goslings
that appears with their parents
beside the lake.

(Pray I don’t startle them).
Or I could ask the double rainbow
high in the sky before it fades.

Or the disembodied voice
as it makes an emergency
announcement over the PA.

The student union is closing
early due to protesters
connecting their voices

to their bodies outside.
I’m afraid to ask the poets inside
who are allowed to keep reading

after the university locks
the bathroom doors. You know,
the ones—the poets who know how

to plant seeds of humanity
in the earth with their bare hands,
more lyrical than any trowel.

I should ask the scorched
and pungent-smelling prairie,
its soil blackened on purpose

to encourage it own native growth.
I would ask the red-winged blackbirds
that will reach the field soon,

ready to hunt for a new crop
of insects as it arises,
if I could. I can’t

ask the duff layer,
now burned off,
one more time before

I turn it over

to embrace the unidentifiable
hum vibrating deep within
the roots, growing louder and louder.