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LOGJAM HYDRODYNAMICS

at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest


Inhaling, I forget
where I came from
as a hidden fulcrum
seesaws a pinned
branch in and out
of a riffle
again and again
and the same
winter wren stops
again on a log
to lecture me
with her spirited song
and bouncy dance
until
exhaling, I forget
where I will go.

A semi-retired chemist, Michael G. Smith’s poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Cider Press Review, Nimrod, the Kerf, The Santa Fe Literary Review and other journals. The Dark is Different in Reverse was published by Bitterzoet Press in 2013. No Small Things, published by Tres Chicas Books in 2014, was a finalist for the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award in Poetry. His poem in this issue of Miracle Monocle was written while he was a writing resident of the Spring Creek Project (Oregon State University) at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest.