From Longing/Belonging

In some remote
            pre-dawn eye slit
                        the horizon largely
the same

            the cinquefoils still

chirpy and obliging the ox-eyed

            daisies and the daisies

fleabane and the worts and weeds
           
            the thistles and yarrows
            still healing and exotic

                                    in their ways—

Weed bind.
            Tongue beard.
                        Thimble berries.
            Balm bee.
Flag blue.

~

Rain clarifies colors—
                        colors reveal the brief
ambition of these
                        provincial weeds. In gullies,

            mosses soft, mosses bright

as dyed suede
feel rich beneath young feet.

Rain—nature’s iteration—

light paradiddles
on the surface

                                    of the creek. 

How free-making this word
                                    (penniless)

before
a judge! 

Brooklyn Copeland was born in Indianapolis in 1984. She is the author of the chapbooks The Milk for Free, Northernmost, Borrowed House, Longing/Belonging, Floating World, and Raid Your Own. She slowly edits Taiga Press.