By: Wendy E. Braun

I.
When the burning began
along the Yukon
and we had to wash the boat,

“Dust and only dust” she said,
as the ash fell like snow
and the forest continued to burn.

II.
Perhaps, when only dust remains
we’ll find the bones
of the mastodons, and a tusk

But for now the forest falls
around four bare feet, and a pair of extra shoes
hers and mine without direction.


*”Dust and only dust” belongs to my dear poet friend, Candace Butler