Atavism

 1
Sometimes in the open you look up
where birds go by, or just nothing,
and wait.
 A dim feeling comes 
you were like this once, there was air,
and quiet; it was by a lake, or
maybe a river you were alert
as an otter and were suddenly born
like the evening star into wide
still worlds like this one you have found
again, for a moment, in the open.



2
Something is being told in the woods: aisles of
shadow lead away; a branch waves;
a pencil of sunlight slowly travels its
path.
 A withheld presence almost
speaks, but then retreats, rustles
a patch of brush.
 You can feel
the centuries ripple generations
of wandering, discovering, being lost
and found, eating, dying, being born.

A walk through the forest strokes your fur,
the fur you no longer have.
 And your gaze
down a forest aisle is a strange, long
plunge, dark eyes looking for home.

For delicious minutes you can feel your whiskers
wider than your mind, away out over everything.

Biography | Poems | Best Poems | Short Poems | Quotes | Email Poem |

Poems are below...