Joellen Craft
Because I've had no word
from my friend on the other coast
her unborn child lives and dies and grows
monstrous the future's shape
changed in silence as when the woods
behind my home were coated overnight in snow
so I saw what looked flat all fall
was slope that silent
terrain: what is and is to come
the ground pushed up
when fear moves against
this land that shifts
—
You and I met on a mountain
its skull of snow covering rocks and brush
no trail in sight uniform
height our shared perspective a tidal wave's
simple looming our impossible children
miles and miles from where we left them
asleep in the sand
choosing one shell then another