Words

Axes

After whose strike the wood rings,

And the echoes!

Echoes traveling 

Off from the center like horse.

The sap

Wells like tears, like the

Water striving

To re-establish its mirror

Over the rock

That drops and turns,

A white skull,

Eaten by weedy greens.

Years later I 

Encounter them on the road--

Words dry and riderless,

The indefatigable hoof - taps

While

From the bottom of the pool, fixed stars

Govern a life.