Poem Found Opening a Notebook on a Day a Poet Was Murdered by Agents of the United State’s Government

Photo: Sunset, Jardins des Champs-Élysées, December 1, 1990

Poem Found Opening a Notebook on a Day a Poet Was Murdered by Agents of the United State’s Government

An oak uprooted by the flood
unfinished in its fall
rough against the sky and black

end-of-summer haze
smoking stubble
lifted by the breeze

sparkling in the river’s
glazed surface, the brushfire’s
moonish glow above

the quivering rush of flames
rippling like aurora borealis
troubled by the wind

as before a downpour
creatures rush for shelter
waiting out the storm

the river’s whitecaps
cresting all its currents, the sun
sets behind the centuries

as at the close of autumn
the atmosphere a ribbon of light
across a dark horizon

under hovering crows
stabbing at the sky
where I’m headed

for a glimpse of white
almost accidental.

Hagerdish Farm
Berwich-Upon-Tweed, England
August 28, 2016