PTARMIGAN

Ptarmigan, lead us around the bend

Safe in your mossy nest

Your velvety cry

Anxious kiss, so do we bear witness

To the rattle of providence

To the passing of time

It's hit or miss, the sense of accomplishment

Detached by abandonment

Deceased on the vine

Then something clicks, like the striking of steel on flint

Like the trail as a conduit

Like her igneous spine

Like her igneous spine

Your closest friends in the language of garden beds

Growing out from your emptiness

Could you show us a sign

So nothing fits in the splintered unconsciousness

Caught the eye of a basilisk

Left nothing behind

Left nothing behind