fjording (1997)

earth retaliates, 
squirms sentient in planting season
we clear the sleep from 
her eyes
with hoes and rototillers and brush winter
tangles into bonfires

in the process
dished the scrape and bruise
mapped in scar even
as poem coagulates itself

i rip page's silence
fjording mudhardened 
loggingroadruts
on the way to town