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…

I’ll take this bottle with me when I go.

Not now. Some hiker dropped it passing on

Impossible Hill, a mountainside of stone

made visible by human heels and hooves

Sharp and steep. Don’t fall! Below is Walnut Run

Above, the power line. Buzzards one by one

take off from steel and wire into the blue

horizon fading like they always do.

The woodpecker tapping a log becomes

a thought. What’s the difference between a sound

and a song? Well, a sound can make me jump.

Startled birds are in a bush and when I look

a fox, no, a coyote saunters off

—No, a wood god beckons me to follow.

Green Wolf in a Yellow Wind by Akram