CLEARCUT

your friend means
well, she says
"i really love

your poems,
you should

try to get them

published."

you write back:
"thanks, maybe
you are dead

right, except
the part about getting

published."

she wonders if a poem is
a question in the form
of a statement,
making that old riddle
all the more relevant:

if a poem is
published
in the woods yet
nobody reads it,
you can't tell her
it ever
made a sound.

you, on the other hand, find
a poem is like the roots
left behind

underground
as the tree is

on the way
down.