AUDREY COLASANTI

FALL/WINTER ISSUE #07 POET

Audrey Colasanti is a just-emerged poet. Her first poetry manuscript, Thoughts From The Oak, has been published by Maida Vale/Black Spring Press Group/UK, March, 2023.

FAR BACK IN THE WOODS BY THE WOLF PRINT IN THE MUD

Was there a thump on the ground when the paw hit mud?

Did the woods, just for a second, join in the panting?

How long did it take for the heat from the paw to lose its afterglow?

And the mud to turn cold again like the clay on a forgotten potter’s wheel?

In other words, how long did it take for the instant to become an imprint?

And the imprint, a brief stamp of time, soon to be scrubbed away by wind and rain?

Truly, how long does it take for each moment on this earth to erase itself?

Each thump on the ground—from our shoes, from our fists, from our mouths

to become nothing again, but the sound of a forest—breathing?