Christien Gholson

Diaspora

Edge of a clearing,
        a lone milkweed stalk.

The pod’s soft, peeled bark;
        four seeds still inside.

I open my hand,
        two float toward cliff rocks.

Then, a new desire:
        I’ll take them with me,

release the seeds on
        the mountain’s west slope.

        *

One lands among brush.
        One twists in last light.

A third remains still,
        thinking whose desire?

Every tree is softly falling

             A trout leaps three feet
                          into the air, buries itself
             in circle after circle, folding
                                       this old mining town
             into the past. Buildings blend
                                                    into trees.
             Your fingers
tock against a pollen-filled pine cone. A breath
                                       of yellow-green smoke.

                                                    Later, back in bed,
             there was intermittent rain, sleep,
thunder in the wake of a hummingbird’s wings.

Christien Gholson is the author of the novel, A Fish Trapped Inside the Wind (Parthian 2011), and On the Side of the Crow(Hanging Loose Press 2006; Parthian 2011). He can be found (infrequently) at his blog: noise & silence. contact