Find the thin leather gloves
Slip them over hands
Step onto the rotting porch boards
Push open the gate-that-sticks
With the side of body
Walk to the pile of wood
Lift the tarp’s corner and peek.
Take a breath
Bend over and lift the logs
Testing for weight, for shape, selecting
To cradle in arms the cracked
Dry
Wood
The peeling bark
Rings exposed
Juniper, Pine, Oak, Fir
Walk back on the porch
to the hollowed spaces
*Gratitude to Irene Cooper, beautiful poet and teacher of Introduction to Poetry class for Central Oregon Community College Continuing Education