Comes the kind of wind that comes before
a storm
that combs the forest that
calls me to mark the bones of the forest —
the weather-dark trunks branches
tethered or earthsunk
stones and the markings notched
on stone
remnants of past denizens
— ever-recasting forest
Flurries spin flocks of ocher leaves
out
into open air
Shards of sunlight comb the forest
Bone-shadows flow over wind-downed leaves
Katrinka Moore is the author of five poetry books, most recently Diminuendo. She lives on the outskirts of the Hudson Valley, in rural Schoharie County.