Nature Poem

In 1988 Claudia Brenner and her girlfriend, Rebecca Wight, planned to hike a section of the remote Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania. They encountered a stranger who shot both of them, killing Rebecca.

    … … . .For a little while, there was a black butterfly with us.

    … … . .X later claimed he thought he was deadening       what was deer (dear)

… … . .A universe bullet wound creates a cavity that expands and then collapses in the split    atom it takes a summer's day bullet to blink

… … . .    X wept in his cell to learn a lesbian had survived his horrific attack.        See you later, he'd menaced at the campground.

    … … . .Rebecca, that May afternoon we wept reclaimed our bodies in that secluded thicket

    when you drove your galaxy pelvis across mineThe same look you flashed the day we met    I felt a lifetime drain from Pennsylvania the sphere        in seconds

    … … . .What was it made X think since he never found

love

he should X-out someone else's?

    … … . .My dear, Rebecca: you bled out in a forest along with me        our futures

I bound your words up in my chest to a songbird        Get behind the tree. Your direction life-giving.

After the massacre, I covered you in the blue sleeping bag

        I never wanted you to feel cold.

    every drop

of my damned devotion        hesitation

To leave you there, living.

    … … . .Four blazing miles I retraced our trail like a love letter to the highway        scraped over fallen logs warding off the night

        my skull smoke escaping the shooter's lips        a beehive of shoc        an engine of surveillance

        a white towel plugging my exit wounds

        … … . .X's reckless ammunition designed using calculations and data gathered from previous testing    perfect for small game .22 barrel action rifleNature Poem

    … … . .ER doctors

        threw me up against the periodic table of elements            odds

Rebecca, your parents cremated your remains        before I could touch your hair left intensive care.

After the murder,

        the third disappearing act.