1/14/08 Camp Neche

I went for a walk in the woods today.
As I parked I thought about psycho killers
and rapists in the trees and I was a little scared.
I started walking.

A small brown owl flew right across my path
and I felt like Artemis, the wild forest woman.
Birds called and cawed and I started thinking about
my ancestors and forests and wolves.

I imagined being encircled by a pack of them,
their paws in the snow, snorting in the cold.
I could feel them hiding. I looked for a stick to swing.
I got to the river bank and sat down in the snow.

Snowflakes landed on my skirt and didn't melt.
Two black and white ducks flew away, trailing their feet
along the surface of the water. I listened to the ice and
the cracking of cold tree trunks, and I thought about lions.

She would be warm in her coat, a huntress lounging in the snow
just behind me in the bushes, her yellow mountain eyes burning.
The water flowed over the ice and under it, and I imagined
her smooth teeth sinking into my shoulder.

You know, a heart flows like a river.
And fear crouches like a lion.
Winter comes like a bird.
I'm glad I have found you after so much searching.