each morning, fog feathering
all the bent grass blades, thistle
heads, underbrush, preening
twigs and evergreen limbs,
white winged from far hill
to low gully, as if overnight

we'd sunk into reef, bleached
and imperfect, ready to flake
off with each increased degree
of heat, the path I walk
with deer tracks and last night’s
coyote howl soon littered

with each tree’s fallen plumes,
so fragile the country’s beauty,
its thin film of candid reckoning,
that hope is a struggle, thinking
each night’s inky fog can break
toward gentle light, this rime

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Lisa Higgs is the recipient of a 2022 Minnesota State Arts Board grant providing creative support for individual artists. Her third chapbook, Earthen Bound, was published by Red Bird Chapbooks in February 2019. Her poetry has been published in or is forthcoming in ZYZZYVA, Third Coast, RHINO, Sugar House Review, and WaterStone Review, among others. Her reviews and interviews can be found at the Poetry Foundation, Kenyon Review Online, the Adroit Journal, and the Colorado Review.

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