deep spring 
the elm chooses 
the crow 

pineshadow 
over the chicory field 
mackerel clouds 

storm-broken hemlock 
the lanternfly’s proboscis deeper 
into the blood 

spruce in cone 
the lengthening blueness 
of its shadow  

white clover 
expanding to the forest’s edge 
crowcaw 

maple leaves 
skittering across asphalt 
autumn’s voice  

a yellow oak leaf 
flittering into the cold 
last monarch 

quidnuncs 
the starlings light 
on a bare hickory 

the mountain ends the forest ends winter rain 

winter stream 
a birch tree falls 
into another self 

ice-glazed pine 
those years 
I held myself in stasis 

a single sycamore 
in the center of the woods 
first lightning  

Joshua St. Claire