Ablutions of Cracked Earth

No wind wraps leaves

Warm to sail

Under boughs lacking tears

While Atlas quakes

Upon a memoir of thirst

Roots delve burroughs of rabbits

Asking for a drink

Upturning stones in reach

Where once sleek fibers

Contracted when lean

Season’s uproar founds an embrace

Of sky to the seams

This dry oak was ready to receive

Gates opening, an outpour, an answer

Awaited rain surging bones

Within breath to bind dust unto rising

Beyond doubt, such core constrained

Emergent action but instead traced

Tighter rings centered

Vibrant longer after defying fate

Certain death

Yet maybe taunted, as wounds fail haste

While roots writhe below dice

And flip tables of ledgers

Grove’s despair frames the hollow

Abandoned save by pillars of the temple

But misty songs remain through footprints

Worn into chords of ancients

The trees entice soil

To remember grass and clover

Encircling a mossy eclipse

One meadow sealed steps to horizons