Upon the aftermath of an inferno,
Amid the ash, baked soil, and
Blackened granite
Of a fire-scalped ridge,
I greeted the naked skeleton
Of a lodgepole pine
With a handshake,
And forgetting my brutishness,
Broke off a burned humerus,
Heavy with marrow
And unspent fire.
Thus guilty of robbing the living dead,
Avowed her disembodied limb to become
My companion,
And wood and flesh strode away,
Through canyon and stream,
Arm in arm.