Hand cut collage, 28” x 22”, Framed

Keepsakes

By Judith Anderson LeFevre

a trance spawns a brooding

depth and form emerge

revealing a florid wild

feathers jockey for a place

atop a grove of tethered trees

where quiet has colonized

celestial bodies move in apology

laser cut like gemstones with aura

that used to capture our fancy

was the red-shouldered hawk

the first to cry out an alarm

as focus shifted away from sky

away from forests away from streams 

her kee-aah kee-aah then a warning

to which clonal colony do I belong

the aspens long-limbed, long-lived

scented with spruce and hemlock

henna painted on my skin and brows

whispering aeolian tunes with the winds

or to a cloud of gripping forces 

tethered like the aspens

to digital versions of myself 

a pleasant stupor shrouding

an eroding sweep of terrain

a rare glance to the heavens

awaiting a notification of thunderstorm

which story will I tell

and keep on telling