(North Stonington, CT)

Untended on abandoned land,
it has not fallen, subdued perhaps,
lowered into quiet depression
if we imagine how it once kept sheep in a pasture:
loosely stacked granite, open to the light,
ready to shed rock at the start of a hoof climb.
Oak trees still stand close, fiddleheads nestle
in sunbaked rock. Ingots of moss have settled
where water found thimble-sized grooves.
Lichen has weathered the gray faces blue.
The wall remains, though each stone has become
remains, living among gathered leaves
that in their brilliance mold into the soil again.

Eleanor Kedney is the author of the chapbook The Offering (Liquid Light Press, 2016). Her poems have appeared in a number of U.S. and international periodicals and anthologies. She is the founder of The Writers Studio Tucson, a branch of the New York-based creative writing school, and served as the director and the advanced workshop teacher for ten years.