Ice Poem by Jared Carter

It's melting now. Everything else
is melting, too -
Red cedar, wolverine, harebells,
cinerous shrew,

Deep beds of fern. The spirit bear
continues on
To higher ground, to forage where
steelheads still spawn

And leap the battered weirs. A herd
of elk starts north
Beneath the ridge. Up high, dark birds
drift back and forth.


First published in Clementine Unbound.