Possession
by Connie Wieneke
Cherry Picker (2005) by Fred Birchman. Charcoal, graphite, and photographs on paper. 35 x 28 inches. First appeared in HDJ No. 14, 2006.
Possession
The neighbor speaks of an owl as hers
and her husband's as ours as if theirs
this owl that’s come to roost
a spruce scraped off that bit of basalt
they too own, trailered a hundred miles,
to be plotted and irrigated on this
their river bottom, as if a great horned owl
with its spit-muck feathers and agile bones
need know anything about clear title
to this land or the mice and skunks it hunts.
Spider-clouds, aphids, geese, and Jupiter
tease the contested air this early
November evening. Everything spirits off
and the owl without rustle or word settles
our fence post. How its wings pray
dusk to earth. By the time my husband lifts
hands to binoculars to eyes to focus on what
for-the-moment is ours, the owl has gone.
Connie Wieneke's most recent or forthcoming work has appeared in Weber: The Contemporary West, Split Rock Review, Stand, High Desert Journal, The Forge Literary Magazine, and Talking River Review. Her prose and poetry also have appeared in several anthologies, including Orison 6 Anthology and Rewilding: Poems for the Environment. Since 1983, she has lived in Wyoming where she has worn many hats and is keen on collaborative projects of all kinds. Her prose and poetry is fueled by family and relationships with the land and all its myriad inhabitants and conflicts. She received an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana and two literary fellowships from Wyoming Arts Council.