Lament for a Creek
By Renee S
It is a specific kind of sickness
to purchase land riotous with life
and raise a blade
where the root firms the worm
between tree and current
where the reed screens the mantis
as she prays
there is so little left to say
about undoing
all this losing
the fringe of things that sing
with spore and dew
I did not witness the way
your beds were spread
bulldozer pushing straight in
only feel the violence deep
under my skin.