SCENES FROM CALIFORNIA.

I Elk In Fog

To think that diaphanous fog
could obscure
so massive a creature
silhouetted against the horizon
as if far away,
while the ocean, veiled in mists,
roared against the cliffs.

II Trapped Cow

Somehow it slipped
down the muddy gulley
and couldn’t climb out.
A man out hiking
heard the bellowing
and summoned the farmer
who shot the animal
out of mercy.
Surprisingly preserved,
its body leans
against the incline
like a black shadow,
its unseen feet resting
in shallow water.

III Life/Land Forms

The slopes of the headlands
slide smoothly to the sea
of cold waters and roiling tides.

Under a wet shock of brown grass,
the narrow skeleton of a fox,
where weeds blow back yellow and russet,
and coots align in even rows
across the rippling surface of a pond.

Past mossy trees tangled in vines
and lichen-covered fences of an old farm,
lies a ribbon of brown sand
without beginning or end.