Moose Family

The moose family continues to appear almost daily at one of the nearby sloughs. It makes me wonder if the resident bear has moved on.

"When he tried his eyes on the lake, ospreys 

would fall like valkyries 

choosing the cut-throat 

He took then to waiting 

till the night smoke rose from the boil of the sunset 

But the moon carved unknown totems 

out of the lakeshore 

owls in the beardusky woods derided him 

moosehorned cedars circled his swamps and tossed 

their antlers up to the stars 

Then he knew though the mountain slept, the winds 

were shaping its peak to an arrowhead 

poised 

But by now he could only 

bar himself in and wait 

for the great flint to come singing into his heart"

from Bushed

by Earle Birney