“Petroglyph” – Tullio – 2013
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Daily Archives: December 3, 2013
Northern Woodland
Thinking as you
I see the old place new
treading familiar pathways
softly in our shared territory
stepping back breathing it in
observing the execution of your ancient habits
comprehending the logic of your journeys
and the reasons why you move
Finding your shape pressed in the grass
where you halt before stepping
over the break in the rusted wire
where you scrape the soft earth
where you pass and have passed for millennia
where your prints are still fresh
the rubbed and scuffed trees
all the feral signs of your dangerous life
You are drawn here by fallen chestnuts
white oak acorns and each other
where the autumn sun warms the hillside
where you hide at noon by the clear waterway
the cool place where I spot you beneath the moon
Where paths converge in this enfolding valley
near the earthen dam above the small stream
by two trees I sit for hours
watch the frost evaporate
admire the morning mist
note the insistence of the woodpecker
and observe the passing of the day
Our moment is not so unique
each foot of living earth is
after all
a place for dying.
*
“Northern Woodland” – by Tullio DeSantis
Filed under Poetry
