typical of an arid country among hundreds of other flora

you find half a province of avalanches 





parts are desert





I might say light defeated by a dark thing that strips

mountain and bullet 





		         no





the mountains have forgotten airborne

you would never say howl

never say mountain





or region or enemy

you say men’s mouths  are the woods’ black holes





I’m thinking The guy on TV didn’t seem upset about

killing his wife If he’d done so but he didn’t he says





nothing about him if not after an interview

tuft bodies of red wings scatter the lawns 





did you hear 

birds out of sky

some dead wind





he didn’t seem upset and so may as well

have killed his wife

a jury says





If you could hear me now I’m not sure how important

it might seem In another language





Hope is not too much or that a random crime

might mean We share something

Copyright © 2013 by Ruth Ellen Kocher. Used with permission of the author. This poem appeared in Poem-A-Day on October 23, 2013. Browse the Poem-A-Day archive.