Medicine Lake

1)
Laying my head
On air
Inside the netting
Raised
With shock-cording
In a caldera’s cradle

An antlered calm
Walks
On the edge
Of disturbance
To water

A brief shower
Shaking down
Through the red bark
Of California’s fir
Releasing
Temporarily
The unsorted
Stress

2)
Transferring
By volcanic association
Into the meadow
The impression
Of molten hair

A woman
With lava
On her head

3)
Walking
Over the stone-flows
With my son
To a pond
In a timber-lined chamber
Catching frogs
Among dragonfly multitudes




--Avocet, 2004