This is my own wilderness
beginning with my fingertips,
cascade tree stubble to silt;
at my right hand, Fontenelle,
mule fawn in green dark,
soft dapple of touch
by sunlight through
leaves brown and green.
It is forest here
with the plains
opening at my back—
the Platte to Northfork,
Chimney Rock and Courthouse Rock.
Mandan in memory of the dead—
deer rustle among dead leaves
and slip elms—memorial of
nine villages to the north
that were clustered about
the head-waters of the river’s
southward flow, a turn
bending down to Fontenelle,
the soft soil that holds
against generations of rainwater
the dark stains of their covered fires.
Selected Poems (Asphodel Press, 1994)
Photo by John Davey
