No Familiar Symbol

Elise Houcek

Green clothespins plagued the skeletons
After they were brought here.

No familiar symbol had come to us
Out of the past to protect our interests

When the moss eroded the woods.
It’s hard not knowing which years

Are voluntary and which ones practice
Starting in the bush, so once in a while

We plant a tree, layer it with oxides,

See what kinds of things it needs, what times.