Two poems by K. A. HAYS
Windthrow
Some shudder some go without fear
Soon dirt skips up laurel frilling
the downed one Yes time too
bunches and waves pressed
as from the thrown seeds shed casings
slip out hello
heat whipping to cold the clouds bloated
to rumble and clot to tarry
panting speaking in tongues
yes happy as I
or as you small one
Now the sapling clung to the giant
who is the giant climbs on
the roots of the ripped-down drinking
digging in Come then here
129 The Paris-American
Some shudder some go without fear
Soon dirt skips up laurel frilling
the downed one Yes time too
bunches and waves pressed
as from the thrown seeds shed casings
slip out hello
heat whipping to cold the clouds bloated
to rumble and clot to tarry
panting speaking in tongues
yes happy as I
or as you small one
Now the sapling clung to the giant
who is the giant climbs on
the roots of the ripped-down drinking
digging in Come then here
129 The Paris-American
Windflaw
Only the mundane middle-of-things
stays green flamed by the brilliances
(bud roused red or broke-gold leaf)
Blinking into and flashing out
the hues squall as the city soon-to-be sounds
like the city soon gone and the just-born
squints like the dying See
how the first leaf wrinkled
unstrong finds windflaw
and clings then clinging
having unpinked wet
and glad goes bronze
130 The Paris-American
Only the mundane middle-of-things
stays green flamed by the brilliances
(bud roused red or broke-gold leaf)
Blinking into and flashing out
the hues squall as the city soon-to-be sounds
like the city soon gone and the just-born
squints like the dying See
how the first leaf wrinkled
unstrong finds windflaw
and clings then clinging
having unpinked wet
and glad goes bronze
130 The Paris-American
K. A. Hays is the author of Early Creatures, Native Gods (2012) and Dear Apocalypse (2009). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Best American Poetry, The Kenyon Review, American Poetry Review, jubilat, and many other venues. She currently lives in Lewisburg, PA, and teaches at Bucknell University.
