Mortar & Pestle

I got a book of beautiful poems in the mail today from Al Davis, a professor at MSUM (my alma mater - by the way did you know "alma mater" is Latin for "nourishing mother"? i like it.) and the sr. editor of New Rivers Press, the college's literary press.

The book is called "Mortar & Pestle - Poems by Lisa Gill" - who just happens to be a long-lost soul sister.

Juniperus monosperma - One-Seed Juniper

If it weren't for junipers, the land
around my house would blow away.

Funny thought.
I don't want to live alone anymore.

Here is how the scales don't tip
too far.

Short trees, long shadows.

Coyotes have somewhere to hide
and cows go around.

How to accommodate predators
and the usual decimation.

I balance a berry on a fingertip.
Mash was the first impulse.

but precarious invites communion
or at least curiosity.

So I attempt the awkward.
When the berry drops, I watch it

fall.
Then pick it back up.