This field remembers
every full moon this year—
steps of deer through it.

Last year’s sunflower,
time to return it to the dirt,
sparrows overhead.

Mystery runs deep—
life that we don’t understand,
it all slips away.

Moon in the morning,
not thrown there in a folk tale,
not made by our hands.

In the late morning,
poetry in his soft ears,
songs of birds seep in.

Storms come, more storms come,
sandhill crane calls fill the air,
nodding thistle bursts.

The world to explore,
my dog, connected to me,
nose in all flowers.

Pollen, like stardust,
steps around my small garden
on mourning doves’ feet.

I planned for the bees,
butterflies, finches, inch worms—
I wanted them all.

His song comes on loud—
the finch to the blank morning,
so intent, and then flight.

I am that bright day,
I am every failure—
every joy not lost.

Words come easily
in the bottom of the night,
mind blank by morning.

I gave all my heart,
the thought of it still catches
in my throat, my mind.

Next to the highway,
with soft magenta centers,
yellow mullein grows.

Cattails are yellow,
Green Heron fish at their base,
the long day’s slow walk.

At Third Sister Lake,
trees and clouds in the water,
my heart in the sky.

Faces like velvet,
I plant them, again, again—
they remember.

That last blue iris—
we’re getting deep into June,
nestlings learn to fly.

Vireo season
red-eyed, warbling, yellowthroat—
voice of the forest.

Woods full of Robins—
every other call is theirs,
round-eyed and running.