Ram's Head
Derek Pollard

The secret comes

       Wolf–not–wolf

       Chiasmus of pinion
       Of half–swaying clip

Balance thrown by
Spring’s howl

       When the moment
       Is caught in the passing
       Noise

The beaver standing
Frayed over the half–
Eaten branch

The lone deer
Gone utterly
Still beneath
The atrium glass

       Ring of slots become
       The eagle’s cry

We return, always
To this

       The mountain
       Of false rock

       Waking to a small
       Bright place

About the author:
Derek Pollard is co-author with Derek Henderson of the book Inconsequentia (BlazeVOX). His poems, creative non-fiction, and reviews appear in American Book Review, Colorado Review, Court Green, Diagram III, H_ngm_n, Pleiades, and Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak, among numerous other anthologies and journals. He is Assistant Editor at Barrow Street Press; a Black Mountain Institute Fellow at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; and is on faculty at the Downtown Writer's Center in Syracuse, New York.