Pale scattered

immunosuppressant ovals

chalky steroids;
dispossessed seedpods

tickle at the aural hum

of childhood sleep 
when I might hear

river rush in my right ear

(Burntboot Creek, forked

from the Snoqualmie River)

susurrus of waterfall

in my left.
Austere and ascetic nomenclature:

Lindeman crossing into Buck,

North Fork Railroad Trestle,

Rattlesnake Lake,

Joseph, Judith, Seneca, Astrid. 
Star women ambling

homeward without much fuss;

never begging for fast water

salt or skin or iodine,

not a meager sliver of apotheosis.
Tokul — darkest water,

utterly still.

Laura Da' is our Poet in Residence for November