artifacts

as if in amber

a wolf print in bronze

sits in a stand in our Great Room,

it’s from a wolf we’ve watched,

from a time when she crossed Pebble Creek, 

Lamar Valley, Yellowstone,

and left a track to be

found, preserved, presented,

such a small piece of her world

but enough for me to feel I touch her life,

and to feel undone with the wrenching power

of my leap into her step,

Anasazi hand prints on a wall

help me imagine the person 

of flesh and blood and dreams

who stood here and left a mark to endure,

stone tools particularly draw me

to cross centuries, millennia, chasms,

I reach to imagine how he held the hand-axe,

why he was here for a time,

how he lost his tool,

so much of who we are goes away in time

like leaves in the wind,

when amber randomly holds,

I want to notice 

and appreciate the leaf caught.

by Henry H. Walker

February 13, ‘18