The Cards

Antelope said

the lesson is do

yet she looked at me, horns down

and that reads more like this:

but first I will need a notebook,

small and spiral-bound with an arty, smart-looking cover

and naturally I should wait until the baby grows

at which point I can order a book

about doing

so that there’s no risk of doing it wrong

And already I see her white rump of warning disappear

into the foliage,

because these are not doings

These are the work of bear

finding golden sweetness in the hollow of an old tree

curling under layers of bark

digesting all that the thorny world has painted up to this point

until the first, tight buds coax him out

blinking against the white

when he will rumble to the surface

holding the answer in his hungry paw.