Aaron McCollough

EROS, ETHOS, ECONOMUOS

The air is good in here
we say of the pine-tree

and breaking twigs to move
the soul with what we have

to stick against the fact
of empty sky.

Just look! Cardinals
have nested here since fall

as we have come to rest
and raise our young

in a dangerous
and tangible wilderness.

Secrets inside we can’t
quite name. Hopes. Shapely wants.

The silhouette of cones,
which don’t resemble cones

in silhouette but trees
upended. Dear, we lease

the stem alive and smooth,
though tearing the bark off—

the wet, green, denuded
careen of this not ours

to love.