On this land where creek beds
splinter and crack,
squirrels are skeletons lugging fur,
the deer pale as papery birch.
Hornets hover, plumet,
bounce off hard ground,
birds kilter like ashes.
I walk out into another scalding dawn
where, overnight, a mast of acorns,
freed from shriveled stems,
scattered themselves like manna
far as my eye can see.
Squirrel and deer stand side-by-side,
heads bowed, relishing.
Birds balance branches, salivate
the chance of leftover crumbs.
A watering bucket in hand,
I suffer myself to hope.
—
Ohio Poet Laureate Kari Gunter-Seymour is the author of four collections of poetry and is the recipient of a POTY Award, Storytrade Award, Legacy Award, and Best Book Award. She is a Pillars of Prosperity Fellow for the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, a member of the Ohio Advisory Group of the National Museum of Women in The Arts, the Executive Director of the Women of Appalachia Project, and is the editor of its anthology series Women Speak. Her work has been featured in a number of periodicals and journals including the American Book Review, World Literature Today, The New York Times, and Poem-a-Day. Find her at www.karigunterseymourpoet.com.
