1

 

mountain bluebirds hunt
old lizard signals in the cliffs
hicktown boys drink bull musk
scattered in the lacegrass    refuge closes
at dark     rangers & ghosts make no exceptions
people fall     people jump     a canyon wren
drops its laugh down the valley    a silver spilling
as an outlaw     dies this place can’t leave itself
this place isn’t alone     dickcissel on bobwire turns
its head becomes instagram famous     no alcohol
no swimming: ontology prints meaning
geology exorcises bone      60 acres free from drivethrus gas
stations housing or power a fawn walks a dry lake bottom
forgets its mother

 

 

    2

 

                a red eared
        slider blinded
by can crush

a rattlesnake filling
        a hiker’s feet with sick
whipped blood

 

                a nuthatch
        laughing at the
joke in its name

 

a prairie dog
        poisoned by pellets in
                its ground home

 

                a black bear cub’s grainy image
        on a diorama backdrop

 

 

---

 

SETH COPELAND grew up in Indiahoma, Oklahoma and currently lives, teaches, and studies in the Milwaukee metro. He is the author of the chapbook Plug in the Mountain (Yavanika Press, 2023) and his work has appeared or is forthcoming in Heavy Feather Review, Dream Pop, Kestrel, The Shore, and South Dakota Review, among others. He edits petrichor and Cream City Review.

 

The art that appears alongside this piece is by AMY RENEE WEBB.