Clade Song 9

Western Toad

a white oh dorsal stripe reference common
to the western toad garden crest identifies
oval separated eyes like a calm dusky rust
silhouette of pines and firs on the canoe river
bend trip green from a recently transformed
pale neck foregrounded in the grasslands
woodlands streams springs and mountain
meadows where family walks ponds lakes
reservoirs and rivers in another bright boat
tour in plaid in polyester smoking upstream
or at night listening to chirps like a chick peep
that speaks luring coast and tidal Pacific skirts

Michael Rerick currently teaches and washes dishes in Portland, OR. Work recently appears or is forthcoming at COAST|noCOAST, Graviton, Mannequin Haus, Parentheses, Porridge, The Wire’s Dream, and Waccamaw. He is also the author of In Ways Impossible to Fold, morefrom, The Kingdom of Blizzards, The Switch Yards, and X-Ray.