The axe turns the woods into a field.
The lumberjack leaves the stove on,
embers falling like stars.
The dynamite turns the field into a hole.
The hole swallows itself,
deepening into a cave.

The years turn the cave into a sky.
Tonight, a deer grazes the cloud.
Hooves stomp the prairie,
nose nipping at white yarrow.
There’s a quiet solitude,
covered by this incensed fog.

Imagine if
you were buried twenty years ago.
Tonight, you wake from the sand,
hungry and strange.
A stranger to these woods.

Thai Loyd (he/him) is a junior at Columbia College majoring in Political Science. He can be found on Instagram @thailoyd.