Moving from Water to Bone

What water there is comes from the spout
and only weekly to flood the garden.

Alongside the lettuce: poppies.
The sturdy bones of what once walked.

There was a marsh years ago, miles from
here. But I gave that away, and happily.

We are arranging ourselves and re-
arranging ourselves—

            moving toward solitude.

Or stillness. What I imagine you found
walking where the crows came and went

and came and went and stood, eyeing.

© Kelly R. Samuels

Kelly R. Samuels is the author of two poetry collections and five chapbooks—the most recent Oblivescence, a finalist for the Edna Meudt Poetry Book Award (Red Sweater Press, 2024), and The Sailing Place (Bottlecap Press, 2026.) She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee with work appearing in Blue Earth Review, Denver Quarterly, The Westchester Review, Laurel Review, and The Glacier. She lives in the Upper Midwest.  

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