On Easter Monday
 
I plant a few melon seeds
 
in a sun-warmed place.

 

 
 
 

In a crooked place
 
I find a flint arrowhead,
 
straight and sharp and true.

 

 
 
 

A great blue heron
 
eyes me warily, then flees
 
to a safer place.

 
 
 

An aspen-lined creek
 
somewhere high in the mountains—
 
I dream of that place.

 
 
 

On the mountain path
 
I seek a place to shelter—
 
autumn thunderstorm.

 
 
 

My grief is a horse
 
carrying me far away
 
to a barren place.

 
 
 

On a windy day
 
a man without a hoodie
 
seeks a sheltered place.

Hat

 
 
 

the scarecrow’s new hat—
 
a landing place for blackbirds
 
and stray autumn leaves

Cemetery

 
 
 

Little brown sparrow,
 
the paupers’ cemetery
 
is your nesting place.

Shrine

 
 
 

In a wooded place,
 
a tiny shrine to Mary
 
houses garter snakes.