Sophie Cabot Black

In the Mud Marks Reveal
July 23, 2022 Black Sophie Cabot

IN MUD THE MARKS REVEAL

 

another story:
a stark feather mingled in
 
torn leaves covering the old stain
and the shifty rooster still here
 
separates seed from rock, tick
from dirt, green from spent, his crown
 
of red trembles
one foot to the other,
 
a hard stone of eye on fire
for whatever lies in wait
 
believing each noise
as hostile, as downfall,
 
he pushes to the fore
cocksure the rest will follow,
 
inevitable, his ruff
unfurled by mere wind,
 
the glisten of hook-claw
as he erects himself
 
between the woman
and her hens, the writer
 
and the written,
each ruin and again.

Sophie Cabot Black has three poetry collections from Graywolf Press, The Misunderstanding of Nature, (Norma Farber First Book Award) and The Descent, (2005 Connecticut Book Award) and The Exchange (2013).