Colin Morton: “Footprints”
FOOTPRINTS
She is gone now,
rolled into the treeless earth
she once called home,
and the marks she left tell little.
We don’t know where she was going
or why on this day she walked alone,
whether lost, distracted, in anger or joy
she crossed this field of volcanic ash
that cooled, with her footprints, to stone.
We know only that once she paused,
turned slightly left, perhaps
at the sound of danger or in doubt
whether to call out or turn back,
then continued walking north.
Colin Morton has published a dozen books, including The Local Cluster (Pecan Grove), The Merzbook (Quarry), and The Hundred Cuts: Sitting Bull and the Major (Buschek). His other work includes a novel, many reviews and essays, and the award-winning animated poetry film Primiti Too Taa (with Ed Ackerman).