Culture develops by people doing the same thing repeatedly

using at first only local materials but eventually floating tons

of bluestone from another place so a moon could be invited in

among the moon colored bones a few dried flowers set exactly

in the place of a cerebellum

Without wheelwork no clocks or flamework

no see through horses no bay to the ocean

no clues to definable distance save one line

at the shore of which stand ibis and curlews

two versions of one bird defining horizons

Accidental the book says sitting in plain sight

so all the field marks show wing bars forked tail

eye ring off course from Panama

I exhibit protective bacteria marks of the stars on me

freckled as a child of Iowa heart line folded in my hand

plainly identifiable in any book of runaways

A door closes by itself I hear the threatening cello

My gut and mortal dark combine

Cut to the intertwined strangers

In the side yard a young bird learns its worms

An empty swing set swings like a spirit present

Then someone listens to my heart another to my brakes

attempting to prevent a succession of accidents.

Bushnell gives me a wide field

sharp focus down to five feet

without chromatic aberration

so a far thrush can be immediate

and held with my hand glass

a red mite is big as a horse fly

These are my familiars

and one doe once while nursing

two does twice while plowing