Third Day By Mark B. Hamilton

THIRD DAY
 
Sand speaks to starlight; water caresses
the stone; wind steers past its gibbous moon.
 
Below the snaking turns of Dogtooth Bend
I camp in a cottonwood grove
where the deer trails weave through.
 
Surprised to have a visitor, the beaver sit back
on their fat tails, watching.
 
And beneath the uncertain
sky a river lets the night decide
what is and what was:
 
The moon circles
around the earth’s molten core;
a potato cooks in the coals.
 
Crisp cottonwood leaves
flutter into wispy, gentle sounds
above the tent and fire.

Mark B. Hamilton considers himself an environmental neo-structuralist, working in forms to transform content. Recent work has appeared in Weber—The Contemporary West, North Dakota Quarterly, and Chrysanthemum, and abroad in Oxford Poetry, Stand Magazine, and the Salzburg Poetry Review. His second poetry volume, “OYO, The Beautiful River: an environmental narrative in two parts” is available from Shanti Arts Publishing, 2020. Previous poetry includes an award winning chapbook, Earth Songs, a second chapbook, 100 Miles of Heat, and the poetry volume, Confronting the Basilisk. Please see: www.MarkBHamilton.WordPress.com