The warble of melting snow is the river
is the bleat of the sandhill crane
is the hush of the autonomous mind of the flame above the canyon
is the cow drinking water from mud is the cow and the word cow
is the deckled face in the overhang of stone
is the bone weathered into wood
is the wood weathered to stone
is the sentence
is the moment that longs to be the sentence hidden in a sentence
is the legislated road is the grass is the grass
is the nerve that runs from socket to wrist
is the common knowledge of aperture and speed
is the hole to be yawned into its origin the stone that says
the impulse of water is the moss against
is the growing in spite of
Copyright © 2023 by Emily Lee Luan. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on October 18, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets.