Old Woman Nature
By Gary Snyder
Old Woman Nature
naturally has a bag of bones
tucked away somewhere.
a whole room full of bones!
A scattering of hair and cartilage
bits in the woods.
A fox scat with hair and a tooth in it.
a shellmound
a bone flake in a streambank.
A purring cat, crunching
the mouse head first,
eating on down toward the tail--
The sweet old woman
calmly gathering firewood in the
moon . . .
Don't be shocked,
She's heating you some soup.
VII, '81, Seeing Ichikawa Ennosuke in
"Kurozuka"—"Demoness"— at the Kabuki-za
in Tokyo
Copyright Credit: Gary Snyder, "Old Woman Nature" from Axe Handles. Copyright © 1983 by Gary Snyder. Reprinted by permission of Counterpoint Press.
Source: Axe Handles (North Point Press, 1983)