Report on the House at Cripple Creek by Denise Low

The mined-out mountain shifts against gravity.

Blasted rock terraces sprout scrubby grass.

A large raven sidles by, tail feathers down, submissive.

We are sorry to make it nervous.

 

Hummingbirds dive at my orange blouse, veer away,

buzzing pizzicato.

 

Amaranth is seeded already. Geraniums sprinkle lavender stars .

At night their flames rise in constellations.

 

Foxes burrow in granite catacombs under us.

At night soft weight shifts on the porch.

 

A spider lives in the sink.

Husks of brown moths litter the porcelain.

 

Out the window, hundreds of peaks intersect—

asteroids, mica sheets, bolts of blue silk.

~ Denise Low

Denise Low, 2^nd Kansas Poet Laureate, has published 25 books, including Ghost Stories (The Circle -Best Native American Books of 2010; Ks. Notable Book). She edited a special issue on Leslie Marmon Silko for American Indian Culture and Research Journal. She is a former board member and past president of AWP. Her writings appear in Yellow Medicine Rev., Virginia Q. Rev. Coal City Rev., New Letters, Future Earth MagazineYukhika-latuhse, Unraveling the Spreading Cloth of Time (rENEGADE pLANET), I Was Indian (Foot Hills), I-70. Her blog and website are: http://deniselow.blogspot.comwww.deniselow.com.

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