Yarrow House

Forest Fragments and Ghosts

Tree people rose and danced.
We are going, we are going.
They rose and danced
the log dance, the plank dance,
the bowl and box dance.
Fir people, alders, cedar people,
they danced to honor water, stone, fire.
       They danced away, those tree people,
       they danced away.

Fog wraps glass buildings
in frayed blankets. Old tree people,
ghosts and fragments, loiter in alleys,
litter the sidewalks, perch
in backyards, at corners.
       They danced, those tree people,
       they danced away.
				

Published in Borderlands, Court Street Press, Seattle: 1999

Onetime reproduction for non-resale purposes permitted by the author with the following credit line:  by Judith Yarrow