Grandma lived with this peppernut
Sapling and tree
They drank the same water
I know that the creek is here
Under ground
Under thought
Near the lilac
Someone’s relic of a different life
Someone’s idea
Carried from somewhere else
On a quiet day
When there has been rain
Rest your cheek on the trunk and hear/feel
Water
Running in cracked pipes
Grandma
The tree
The elderberry
The salamander
The sense of humor
The fog
Each water particle
Rhymes with the life here
Whispers kinship
To the cracked and layered
Rocks on this
Hill
Copyright © Kim Shuck. All rights reserved.
Kim Shuck is the 7th Poet Laureate of San Francisco Emerita. Shuck is solo author of eight books and one that is on the way. She has edited or co-edited ten volumes of poetry. She contributed essays to the recently released de Young 125, a collection of writing about and photographs of pieces in the permanent collections of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Her most recent collection of poems is Exile Heart from That Painted Horse Press. www.kimshuck.com
