Pine shadows on snow like a Jasper canvas,
if only my pen equaled the downy’s stabbing beak
this January morning, her frantic
chipping, more resolve than frenzy, to make a feast
of beetle larvae, if only my wood-boring eyes
could interrogate the known like pillars of sunlight
through fast-moving clouds scanning the side
of Corporation Mountain where on a distant ridge
white plumes dissolve like theories.
Urban Renewal (lxxxi.)
Major Jackson
Major Jackson is the author of six books of poetry, most recently Razzle Dazzle: New and Selected Poems. He teaches at Vanderbilt University and serves as the host of the podcast The Slowdown.