storefront poetry 5

in the media's eye     the raven's
glean     crystals around my feet
on land built of dung and dead
plants and eon-pulverized ground
rock made digestible absorbable
osmosis into plants and animals both
in the rain on the cusp of boreal
forest and great northern prairie
bison and elk on the rolling hills
a candelling sentinel tree     on
one ridge     rounded above like a
mushroom cloud above a desert
to the south or above a city
a death-tree spreading     its limbs
left fallen like a spoor print in
spring after a heavy ice storm
dry cumulus clouds foamed up
rise above the hazed horizon
combine harvester dust and dirt
roads with a fear of lightning
strike fires in bush grass woodlands
widely-spaced aspen lodgepole pine
tamarack and swamped black spruce
—nose mountain somewhere beyond—
and my ears feel like when i am
swimming underwater     my water-
logged frog leg kicks and kicks
the thickened surrounding body