First Published
Issue 1, Summer 2009
COMING OUT OF HYBERNATION
by Lisa Cihlar
On the hottest day of spring,
the feel of heavy air reminds
that this is tornado county.
Walk down the trail, smell moldering
oak leaves and traces of just gone snow.
In the sandstone cliffs hear a scrabble
scrape as snakes fall out of a fracture
in the stone, one after another as if the world
is stuffed with writhing things.
ALWAYS LISTING
This grasshopper with one
jumping leg missing, gone
maybe into the beak of a bird,
then dropped as inadequate
so hauled away by ants
who need just such a thing.
Or maybe tangled in the web
of a spider, a huge web strung
between a sunflower stem
and the post of an empty birdfeeder.
A sunflower that only grew due
to careless winter blue jay’s
scattered seeds. Searching
for the best one, one that remembers
summer days, and fullness,
when grasshoppers whir the air
and spit brown tobacco.
This grasshopper escaped
its fate, possibly, or lives its fate
probably, weary from never getting
where it’s going.
Copyright © Lisa Cihlar 2009.
Copyright © Graphic, Kyle Hemming, 2009.