Poetry Friday--"The Presence"

Maxine Kumin a long time resident of New Hampshire, has lived amongst the animals both domestic and wild. Her poetry is the better for it! Here's a poem from Selected Poems, 1960-1990 [811.54 KUM]:

The Presence

Something went crabwise
across the snow this morning.
Something went hard and slow
over our hayfield.
It could have been a raccoon
lugging a knapsack,
it could have been a porcupine
carrying a tennis racket,
it could have been something
supple as a red fox
dragging the squawk and spatter
of a crippled woodcock.
Ten knuckles underground
those bones are seeds now
pure as baby teeth
lines up in the burrow.

I cross on showshoes
cunningly woven from
the skin and sinews of
something else that went before.

Strap on your snowshoes and head on over to No Water River for this week's Poetry Friday Round-Up.

Photo by 'S'.