Hardwood Maple

There crouched in all resilience
___in autopsy
___the dead snow rotting
___the birds back to peck its carcass

Fingertipped unmittened blue
___the iron clank swing set chains up the hill
___not wanting to wait
Thunderstorms broken on the rocks
___but healing
______hungry

Locks picked by wind
___lifted from young eyes
______whispered the furnaced It:
______fat appled limbs
______frolic salt-stainery
______unshod field tipped tricycle
___So I listened
______believed

The sap ran down me
___mourning six-armed
______glazing the sun so I could eat it
______hot off the griddle,
______blue unending

Hardwood maple—
___bone-knotted
___tear-keyed
___blond-leafed
—learns to wait