is the way
they expose
the soft belly of dirt,
the clinging
ropes of root.
Tree crowns
splayed
against
the new side
of the hill,
face downslope …
grit in the teeth.
Water-smooth
trails
transect ribs
broken
by the momentum
of rock
and sludged silt,
deep grains of grief
and loss.
This article appears in Top 10 Stories of 2015.