As though a cougar 
had crouched, tail-tip lashing 
       bitterbrush and sage, 

       then sprung to rip 
open some unwary raccoon 
       hissing up the pine—

       lunged, missed—
clawed long scabbed scars, 
       exposing cambium 

       and scale—but failed, 
failed, and slunk back to simmer 
       in its lightless lava cave. . . . 

       But no, you say, 
running your field-trained thumb 
       slowly down the deep 

       sap-weeping welt—
not a cougar, though we've heard 
       rumors, a mare spooked 

       near this trail last 
week—likely not.  We circle 
       the damaged tree, 

       track the scar.  
Below, chunks of burnt bark raying, 
       exploded twenty feet.  

       Lightning.  Above, 
blackened branches, twigs flame-
       scorched.  And yet 

       the tree enduring—  
a high flaunt of sharp-green vivid 
       needles, braced against 

       the biting wind. . . .
Today, while you split dried pine, 
       it's my turn to track 

       the dog blissing wild 
off-trail.  I stop to touch the wounded 
       trunk.  What kept that strike 

       from torching tinder 
woods, driving us from home, 
       hoping for miracle?  

       And wasn't this 
miracle, the candle-tree hit, kindled, 
       lit—but doused 

       by rain or luck or 
whim, just short of disaster?  I 
       finger the wound's 

       curving track as I
sometimes finger the curved scar 
       arcing up across 

       your abdomen, 
witness to the longest hours 
       that three scrubbed men 

       bent intently over 
to open you,  to cut away every 
       trace of that other 

       predator 
sprung to claw your core.  Cut cleanly 
       away—or so they hoped— 

       left faint prints written 
in flesh.  Within, visible only to 
       the CT scan, an 

       induration—
suspicious thickening—tissue 
       curled in the kidney's 

       crease.  We keep 
close watch, a head-count of pixels, 
       to see what it might

       do:  Nothing.  Nothing, 
to date.  Dead.  Or sleeping—
              waiting to be waked.   

			  

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