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