If, this eve, I can be the sharp compass point, anchor me
here to revolve a mark
wide-hinged as the Instrument allows. The water-in-air–
prismed circumference would bind
dark pines, betrayed oaks, doe-pressed snow, one rabbit edging in
jump cuts toward a paragraph
of bird-scattered seed, houses, strangers, and not you – though
now noted, you. Beloved,
I’m sorry I am a mere needle. Carbon offsets
do not change a fact. Somewhere,
black-stockinged foxes weigh in. Everything graphite and gold,
rose and grit reaches radial
within the wheel. Then I must enclose the jay in cunning
hawk’s voice to clear-claim the feeder,
for I, too, have bullied small birds.
—
Books by Su Love include Weight of Light, nominated for the Pushcart Editors’ Book Prize, and Buddha, Proof, a Minnesota Book Award finalist. Su’s sixth book concerns legacies of nuclear power in Minnesota and is supported by the Minnesota State Arts Board, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and St. Croix Watershed Research Station. Su has been a visiting writer at several colleges, universities and organizations including Salmon Literary Centre, Ireland, and American Space Madrid/Instituto Internacional. sulove.org.
