of a possibility of
a scatter of small unshowy
pieces as certain blossomers
in the left-over bits of habitat
along these streamsides and
tree-dark, cold rock-slopes, where
the ones in the recessive tints
take root, some down to pinhead
size in full bloom (with -- bend
closer -- sometimes a fl ick of
brightness, unpredictable scribble
or dot of crimson or swerve of contour
in the hidden celebrants).
dropping over rock ledges, nor had herders,
in the fi rst big storms last fall, left behind
propped against trees their roughed-in
woodcarvings of the girls of groves, nor were there
young women in cut stone standing under the falls,
smooth beneath their thin dresses of the
creasing water; nor was there any tablet left here,
by a late-summer traveller, in thanks
for the shade and grass and running water.