Becoming blood and bone dissolved
into soil into river carving plateau
wide swath of hill and valley neither
deep nor high and I am hawk call and sweet
whistle and gentle chirping answer
and I am cow grazing hillside and branch
decaying by the river and tick that lives
below that log where we rest on hikes

I am strawberry and water-meter

And cars revving engines rounding corners
skimming pavement blurring streetsign
I am grass popping through sideway crack
and squirrel stiffening in the gutter
remainder of warm breath and tail sway
I am nearer than you know peeping through
slits in the fence through cotton sheets drying
and I am underfoot causing each stumble
fleeing before fall teetering gently undertoe

I am mid-afternoon and carpark

And snake recoiling after a bite slinking
shadeward under patio drawing darkness
over body slick grass under belly under tail
I am exhaust entering noses coating
sinuses gray and brown-beige muffling sweeter
scents from trees and baking cakes around corner
and I am courier carry: bill notices orders to appear
in court tax documentation contractual obligations
and I am spilling outward bed-bound and grief-stricken
populating voices saying yes no please perhaps

I am power-line and brown grass

And highway unfurling across northern plains
unspooled unbroken bereft of pulse
carrying to destined location to paycheck to carnage
to small homes far afield with lit fireplaces
and wrought iron pagodas and I am truck whistle
and wind driving snow horizontal biting faces
chilling fingernails blue the wind under eaves
the roof-howl the iced parking lot underboot
the beer in the ice bucket
the clock ticking on the wall

Megan Kaminski‘s first book of poetry is Desiring Map (Coconut Books, 2012). She is also the author of seven chapbooks, most recently Wintering Prairie (Dusie Kollektiv, 2014), This Place (Dusie Kollektiv, 2013), and Gemology (Little Red Leaves Textile Series, 2012). Her current work Deep City explores the body and the city as architectures in crisis. She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Kansas. She also curates the Taproom Poetry Series in downtown Lawrence.