ACCOUNT OF MY DAYS
Sequence: 3
HERE WE ARE
the nuthatches land on my porch
weather comes down
the fall it is autumn
autumn is a season of constant veering
the sea lions are barking wait
that is somewhere else
no sea here no lions but there is a barking
I hear at night the house dark
stars send their clear messages
through the trees a neighbor's faint light
yellow answers without speaking
a barking I said that is I know neighbor dogs
but before that a wild crying
could be coyotes who return because
the farms no longer serve to make a living
and the outskirts of town are full of offal
and a tangle of brush in which to hide
or it could be how the sea lions sound
once they've travelled this far inland
lost their way dried out the water saltless
companions buried along the way
one last cry in the moonlight poetic
but obscure since their bodies won't be found
and would be described as something else
since no sea lions here remember
this we know and hold fast to