There was this secret grove

in the back pasture in

a deep hollow between

ancient basaltic crags

where I would go to hide

in the deep shadow of

an ancient beech tree,

pretending to be the

last Indian or the

first new world explorer.

I would always go there

to look for cows who were

about to calve and had

not come home with the herd.

One day after a wild

shattering thunderstorm