The Last Walk Before Everything

Promise me the hawthorn tree
will be indentified
either this spring

or next summer
when our days are variable
and in upright clusters.

Promise me however worn
on the undersides
we will become

you will steer me into
the gracious familiar
all red canopy light

so that drying up
will mean so much more
than splitting to release

winged seeds.
Promise me smaller ones.
Unlobed.

Promise south and south-west
forming dense thickets
where the berries

are fresh, cultivated
as bright red antlers and
we as the leaves, emerge.

                                        from Westerns

Copyright © 2006 Catherine Theis All rights reserved
from Northwest Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission