Poem: Atmospheric Rivers

Our Nature might not
be large enough, confined
to tangled wilderness trails,

coastal cliffs and tree-lined streams
invented by snowpack melt.
I will size my soul in island arcs

formed by vents in the crust,
in tectonic subduction that creates
a Sierra, in glaciers that scrape

four Great Lakes. Or an
atmospheric river the size
of Oregon, lifting sea water

10,000 feet in the air, carrying
it aloft thousands of miles,
to drown most of California

in January, as intricate as the veins
on the back of my hand
ferrying blood to my fingertips.

This poem originally appeared in Atmospheric Rivers (2023)

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