Flat

Tree cover

No widow-makers

Midway between high and low

Protection from wind and cold

Shelter

The earth provides

Pine branch wickiup

Stick-dug wall of protective

Earth

Around the base

Insulation

Mossy squares form wind-block walls

Blood

I’ve cut myself

Pine sap antiseptic

Moss bandage

Blood-drop nutrients returned to soil

Iron-scented sweetsweet pine and fern and decay

Dirt under my nails

Clay

Malleable

Handmade brick oven

Slap-rubbed water-smooth

The earth beckons fertility

Modernity begets sterility

Cold-dead plastic

Expanding Elastic

Headache-blue glow

Housing row-by-row

A zoo where the animals feed themselves

Create an ailment create drug sales

We only walk to it

If it’s another place to sit

Then complain we can’t sleep

Fire

Birdnest-twigs-sticks-branches-logs

Rock and flint pulled from river silt

Spark

Heat

Life

Boiled-safe water mixed with ash

The earth provides

Warmth

Stars

Pine needle tea

Resting upon mossy undergrowth

Piled high with ferns