winter landscape with newspaper & dog

the taller boughs at this angle of season

are sepia & count on the evergreen tree

exception. i’m told gold is the color of kings.

draped in yellow diamonds we can’t see

the warning signs: something deficient in

our toothbrush universe. a mourning dove

trolls rime for millet seed & tolls 2 for one

never grieved: all recalling stacks like this.

the dog marks deer scat in the continuing

symposium about who’s your daddy now.

in lieu of flowers, barred rocks are coming.

rows of columns of words catch reflection

in the pleats of my fingers: a reckoning of

boxcars like box tops sent in for the prize.