Old Woman Nature
naturally has a bag of bones
tucked away somewhere.
a whole room full of bones!
A scattering of hair and cartilage
bits in the woods.
A fox scat with hair and a tooth in it.
a shellmound
a bone flake in a streambank
A purring cat, crunching
the mouse head first,
eating on down toward the tail -
The sweet old woman
calmly gathering firewood in the
moon…
Don’t be shocked,
She’s heating you some soup.

By Gary Snyder