alchemy of kind

razoring romance
to shave, chisel
myself into meat
for the machine
stone ground
and scattered to
the arctic winds

bone growing dry
in at the forest's edge

hunt

paint me in alder
send me to shale
wind crow song
antler velvet
winter sun

forgetfulness

my rune-painted
soul might wander
into the forest and
forget to return

tree ancestors stone
moss lichen bone
high branch crow
fox kin watching silent

i will follow

legs cut flint & bramble
i will follow, i will go
breath of the wind & soul
i will follow, i will go

climb the hillock broke
i will follow, i will go
scratching stone to bone
i will follow, i will go

painted in sun & song
i will follow
i will go

fixations

enthralled by
letter showers
tumbling around
the box of me
trying to identify
the ghost within
wanting to paint
my skin red
yellow blue &
green but
i am moon
most days &
she wears black

reclaim shadow

spirit lost, i am
          left ghosting
winterbones
      dragging from
walls to; there, on

  blackwing aloft
painted february
skeletons black on
grey on white
                    sun

    light blind the
fells dragging one
foot heavy &
        stone cold the
snow

white fox ermine
     mirrors the wind
holes filled as they
  emerge
            black crow

in the drone a drum
beat bearing down
collapse like fire
                rest
                resist
                reclaim
   shadow

bearwalking

bear used to
step inside
my skin
roar until
both of us
were exhausted

then--
i fell miles to
my bed

lumbering forth
weary for the
barren fells

insight

a hammer striking
sparks into the dark
my steel skull shatters
with each pine tree pop
in january deep freeze

skeleton tree

my stone days buried
under winterlong:
where comes tundra thaw?

blooddrenched--
arctic fox, snowy owl
crow in the skeleton tree

travel in stone

found, my ancestors:
some cast off antlers
in the forest loam

perfume the air and
here comes the snow
hoar & bramble pierce

carved of these rocks
my chiseled visage
to arms-held sun 

scarlet hand marker
lichen & buried granite--
ghosts in my headstone