Pakuna

—Miwok, meaning

“deer jumping downhill”

I’m grateful for all our ways,

holding on when a squall moves

through, looking each other in the

eye or waiting till the other can,

tracking a worry like a mouse

running through the house, me

wanting to kill it, grateful that

once finding it in a corner, you

see it quiver, its tiny eye wide,

and hold it in your hands, and

somehow we’re back in our skins

and you are holding me. Sometimes

I think that being human is letting

the soul of every animal on earth

try you on. And finding so much

burning in our minds and so much

churning in our hearts, they each

leave to get closer to earth.