We curled on the forest floor,
tentless, in the cocoon
of my father’s down-filled
army-navy sleeping bag
from World War II
we’d managed to squeeze
our amorous selves into.
We were lucky: none
of the approximately
200 annual inches of rain
the Hoh Rain Forest gets
fell on us. In early light
I woke to my husband’s
bright eyes staring upward,
his whisper of “Don’t move,”
the massive antlers
and the huge jaws
calmly chewing
sweet and dewy grass
beside our heads.
is the author of three chapbooks, most recently Cauldron of Hisses (Arroyo Seco Press, 2022). Her poems have been published in The Missouri Review, One by Jacar Press, Natural Bridge, Permafrost, Gleam, The Rise Up Review, The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review, The Ekphrastic Review, Gyroscope, and other literary journals. She has been the recipient of fellowships at Dorland Mountain Arts, The Mesa Refuge, The Helen R. Whiteley Center, and Alderworks Alaska. She lives in Southern California.
