For the Post-Anthropocene

—at Roque Bluffs state park
stone stone & skipping barefoot tender
on stone sand & heat / sharpness or roundness guiding
to go on wanderlooking
but not looking for
no not to find but what’s now found & now, seeing
I see
& if I bend to touch a rock to palm
a rock the wind wobbletosses a force
I’ll be too, a little bluff wind a rough rogue
the stones too I’ll be so I could
point the body now to serve the larger body
(the larger body in which my body’s just a cell
/ something working in the cell)
to join
like little bluff wind (aware)
/ serve the whole
so other bodies may go on
to see stone & skip tender—

K. A. Hays is the author of three full-length poetry collections published by the Carnegie Mellon Poetry Series: Windthrow (2017); Early Creatures, Native Gods (2012), and Dear Apocalypse (2009). Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry (2009, 2011), Best New Poets, and many magazines, including Southern Review, American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, Northern Woodlands, and Gray’s Sporting Journal.