casemate poems (redux) 5

after being gone
sunny sunday after
and it's almost time
to close the studio
for evening and night
at home not at war

after spring meltwaters
flood and recede the island
grass grows tall as people
blood trees rooted in their
toil burst into floodplain
leaf shade for the unaware

this land live on
by people—the people—
over 11,000 summers:
imagine life here then
imagine life in europe
the changes wrought