A Dream of Tracking

— Nathan Erwin

Look—the last Alleghany cougar running across the road,
its weight having snapped the old elm branch
it leapt to.

Behind your eyes, I see the ghost cat etched in white cedar & black earth.
                                                                                                                Our love hides.

                                                                                Out of dearth & claw,
                                                                        out of a dream so deep
                                                                        we wake without a morning.

A blur leaving tracks behind, pressure releases & concentric rings,
the imprint of a startled fall as our future lopes wildly away.


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