in any scrap of shelter
before pasteurized before military pulled on boots before southbound steam and metal carried, before arms to bear before pitchforks and dark borderlines and lit roads and seeds with copyrights when storm lost people in the wind’s tatter
huddled in any scrap of shelter and by shelter, i mean a tree i mean what’s come from somewhere with instinct
i mean the sorrow humming off the fresh clearcut on the outside of town
before that before poland had a name from the slavic word for field before naming
nicole v basta's poems have found homes in Ploughshares, Waxwing, Plume, Sixth Finch, Crazyhorse, Ninth Letter, etc. She is the author of the chapbook 'V,' the winner of The New School's Annual Contest and the chapbook 'the next field over,' now out from Tolsun Books. More: nicolevbasta.com