The cold is a good counselor, but it is cold.

this is clear cold rain
no mists in this forest

just a deluge
increasingly insistent

saturated loam
and inundant bridge—

we walk on water
in water

one letter difference
sure, easily dismissed

but your feet still
get wet—

this the lesson
everything is as

it seems—
an earthworm

coiling in on itself
a question answering

a question
the gray river silt

the wind lashing
the osoberry—

there is no need
for justification—

the land slides
slowly and inevitably

down the bank
the bleeding hearts

trace the mud
with their petals

this day is cold
the rain makes it more so