Patricia Ranzoni: Two Poems
hibernaculum | black powder fire

hibernaculum

when, predictive,
bats returned
to safe caves
and fish and frogs
buried below
the frostline
in the pond bottom
he curves into his
den suspended
he thinks alone
knowing only
darker dark
colder cold

lets himself
     deep
        back
              into earth


heart slowed

      defenseless

torpor

      time migration


once, consequential,
he feels himself
larger than himself

paws of he-music
about his ribs

a she-muzzle
nuzzled into his fur

above them
              one dream
one breath
              one time

black powder fire

night coat
she goes out

dark as bark
hood to ground

no one on earth
knows where she is
but the dawn ones

lifts her nostrils
to sense what else
is about

where

circles the pond
in first snow slush
rubbing as she goes

spruce
            fir
                  willow

shushsh
              shushsh

inkdrops off the alders
locate her face
but she is but a flow
through
the waking woods

invisible

a hunter might
take her
for a lucky bear

want her

load his muzzle

shatter her heart

Poet's Biography:

Patricia Ranzoni writes what her body notices and can't help saying. Two collections, Claiming and Settling have been published by Puckerbrush Press (1995 and 2000) and a third, From The Wellhouse, is in progress. Her work has appeared in eleven dozen or so journals and anthologies including Christian Science Monitor, Blueline, Shearsman (UK), Spoon River Poetry Review, Yankee Magazine and Zone 3. Toward the location and honoring of Maine voice, she is a co-founder of SpiritWords/Maine Poetries Collaborative and Maine Poetry & Story Exchange. She maintains an author page/work station at http://members.aol.com/pranzoni/index.html.