What does the blue jay think
When an egg falls from its nest?
How does the spider handle the bat
Feasting on its young?
Each time another leaf slips from my limbs
It hurts all the way down to my heartwood
I feel the emptiness in my arms
The immutable echo of vacant boughs
My roots untethered
I once saw a fawn
Dangling from the power line
Beneath my crown
Eagle
Owl
I do not know who dropped it there
As I looked into the black
Marble eyes of the fawn
Struck open
Tongue lolling
Neck snap folded over the line
I worried
Where is its mother?
Will she think to look up
To find her missing child?
Will she feel the gnawing pain
In her heartwood?
The razor sharp arrow
Shredding the bark of her soul?
I do not know how a bullfrog croaks
I do not know what the mole thinks
Blind above ground
But the stabs of motherhood?
Well
The harsh season
The brutal rake
The bonfire
Hand me a seed
& I can tell you
Sorrow awaits.