Into
Erec Toso

 

 

It comes as a surprise

When the lug of my boot

Bites deep into granite till

On a trail steep

Lost to Neglect

Overgrown after the fire.

 

I lean onto the

Walking stick

And break out of my thoughts

And into this charcoal forest.

 

Edges dissolve

And I step terrified

Through a gateway of

Blackened ponderosa pines

Into a sensate

Tide that rises

To my mouth so I can swirl

The dust of dead trees

To my ears so I devour

The green of bracken fern

To my eyes so that I can sip the chit chit

Of a flicker.

 

How wonderfully upright

This chance slip of the gears

This improbable marble in the slot

This off camber falling

Into a winning hand.

 

 

 

~~~~~

Erec Toso once found a bleached and cracked desert tortoise carapace. He took it home to his garden where it slowly sank into the soil. Though he has tried, he has not yet found another. He writes now about his search.