winter nightfall :: grand forks, n.d. ::

this earthlit relic

imbues night's prairie with

legends : slanting

shadows of feathered horsemen :

a blue smear of juniper ash

from ancient migrant fires

on snow ::

::: wagon ruts

that once could be traced

back to philadelphia or

skippack township

or the colonial ravines

of the pequea river

vanish beneath this

levitating crescent :::

this earthlit relic :

dissolving in the faintest

cloud : reappears in

a curtainless window in

grand forks where

a fresh foot of ice makes

fossils of us all : whose

ancestors : cast out :

of america : survived

disintegration

on these deep wind-braided

plains : in this

far place where

moonlight succeeds

the season's early dark :::

:::

postscript: redhorse :

two feathers : blue union

brass-button uniform :

where has the moon gone

here in heaven where

the infinite stars never

sleep ::: spring has

come again ::: we are

poverty's wicked

immigrants

never again :::