WOODCUTTER, Part 1 ~

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Night Table

Here is part of you

While you sleep —

The small shine

Of silver earrings

Dogs In Snow

I bring them out water

They drink around the ice

Chains rap on the bucket

Shivering I wait

Looking up into the stars

What I see in their eyes

Plowing back to the house

After shaking their coats goodnight

Strength in my hands

The Pleasures of Love

 

The last of my noon hour

Black tin lunch pail

Sitting on a sap soaked maple stump

Woodchips nettled on my woolen socks

Finding the fruit cup she made for me

Clear cold glass in my oiled hand

Neat slices of strawberry and pear

 

December

She’s supposed to be land clearing

Heaping brush to burn in first snow

But the pale yellow ghost of tall

Summer grasses she sweeps down

Is instead caught in her hand

And placed that way in a kitchen vase

Showing a warmth to last us through winter

_________________ 

Bob Arnold
WHERE RIVERS MEET
(Mad River Press) 


photo ~ a young farm worker smiles for the camera