Masting

Red Oak menstruates in the heat of summer Beech and maples stand back from her labor Moonlight lifts her skirt Wind drifts through her leaves She stomps in circles only the owls divine Piper of voles She checks the many holes up and down her body Shivers An ancient skin crawling with leafhoppers and katydids Pinches herself of replications Like a plate glass window shattered from above She rains green acorns Thousands of bitter thumbtacks dropped to the forest floor Seeds claw to their tiny graves How they cry night and day During a month of rain sun and the twist of Earth’s belly! Mother! Mother! Until More than enough For a feast of all the creatures The remaining settle Stars Born from the mud and sky of colliding galaxies Woman and God.