Mud Intimate
I plunge my fingers in mud
and sculpt a twig spine, line of dirt
deep massage for all the hurt
sluiced through river banks and muck.
I tickle the cherry tree root
so its limbs can feel
a hand’s warmth, a glow
that stimulates stone fruit.
In that line I poke a stone,
rounded rock of muddied flint
just where a head must hint
above his spine of rooted bone.
Tuck in pine cone feet
pebble buttons on a blossom suit
acorns for his ankle boots,
a wig of twisted wheat.
When we lie, him and I
thigh to muddy thigh,
I wish it were so simple,
you and I, lying by.
Author Bio: Tricia Knoll
Tricia Knoll is an Oregon (US) poet whose work includes eco-poetry, social justice work and haiku. She is widely published in journals and anthologies. Her collected works include Ocean's Laughter (Aldrich Press, about a small town on the north Oreogn coast) and Urban Wild (Finishing Line Press, about human interactions with wildlife in urban habitat).
Now available at Amazon.com from Aldrich Press, Ocean's Laughter -- a book of lyric and eco-poetry about Manzanita, Oregon. Reviews.
Urban Wild, a poetry chapbook now available from Finishing Line Press
website: triciaknoll.com
twitter: @triciaknollwind