In the Woods

POETRY
Written By Terry Belew

By Terry Belew

I could describe the intricacies
of moss,

the way leaves push

in summer,
a birch sapling cowering
beneath a parent,

a fox
in a hollowed-out tree,
how the light shines
through foliage.

None of that matters.

Just north, there is a tower’s
blinking strobe. 

I take a picture
of a caterpillar 
because I know someone 

who would like that. I smell the fresh 

clear-cut before I see it
and I’m not appalled, 

I just look
down into my hands 
to find where I am.

Terry Belew

Terry Belew lives in rural Missouri and is an Instructor at State Technical College of Missouri. He will attend the University of Nebraska-Omaha low-residency MFA program in the spring and is the recipient of Karen S. Kane Memorial Fellowship. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in such journals as Tar River Poetry, The American Journal of Poetry, Storm Cellar, and The Fourth River, among others.

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