Between the membrane of fur

and muscle, blades fevered by appetite
dimpled the prairie with denuded bison.

The pick’s sharp interruption 
of the ground’s moss and prairie grass union

uncoupled Kansas soil.
A timber scribe,

small enough to hide 
in the curve of the palm;

portable instrument 
of the Great Reconnaissance,

subtle gouge for the lonely mind.

Laura Da' is our Poet in Residence for November. This poem was originally published in Da's book Instruments of the True Measure, 2018, University of Arizona Press.


Previously: Refusal of the Return, Centaur Culture, and Metes and Bounds.