a sound with the force of cotton on skin
the sigh of a newborn sprout leaving its seed
fish tail swishing beneath the crescent waters
hush, careless hunter
you’re the thorny crown of evolution
creeping between the boughs in tuonela
shod with the intemperance of steel
girded by the rapacity of gold
leaden with the dullness of expectation
hush, warless hunter
your former life lays in smithereens
far from the sun in the lap of louhi
and you’re doomed to ghost in the shadows
until the end of days or ebb’s white never
ears leery to the thrum of nature’s quiet demise
by TETIANA ALEKSINA & TONY SINGLE
© All rights reserved 2023





