Kevin Craft
1.
It’s hard to believe these mountains.
From Mariner 10, 1974
is a planet undeterred by speed.
Ghost craters. They speak
the dialect of future remission—
bl/ink, curs/or, gap/e.
That was great, said the future.
That was then, said the West.
Returning to the issue of wolves.
Still, mountains make good movies.
Slow & lo were we
flying when we reached the lake
2.
the end. Cattails.
Satellite glide path, inkling.
A vapor surrounds us. Toward.
3.
Up from the sea bed
a fish wriggles out of
medieval schools.
We bury him today—
monkfish, namesake.
The soil as he knew it—
blowflys. Eggs of the apple snail.
Strings of snow geese
for a splintering
4.
family tree. The sisters rise,
arm in arm. The eldest standing
to one side: calls for the interpreter.
Stars rush past their
starving light. It’s our turn
to eke out a living.