Sugar Maple 
Some variants and slant, half-pulled
wound of the tap.

Flared plates of trunk, a foot stalk
with a seed in its heart,

clear sap. As if one stares out a window
to frame a thought,

a sense of mind
that makes you think you know

when you can’t.
What thought burns here?

As if our quiet tomorrow
is caught in sensation

of the trace-root’s
sugaring,

the simple fact
of some erosion

and ecology’s abolition
thin and barren

in February’s little
chrome.

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Juliet Patterson’s first book, The Truant Lover, was selected by Jean Valentine as the 2004 winner of the Nightboat Poetry Prize and was a 2007 finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in 26, Pebble Lake Review, Swerve, Water~Stone Review and other magazines. She teaches poetry and creative writing in Minneapolis through the College of St. Catherine, Hamline University, and The Loft Literary Center.