“Aerial Combat” by Paul Garson
I learn a new vocabulary every spring
— geological: Devonian or Pleistocene eras,
names of mountain ranges, fjords, glaciers.
It’s the same thing every spring
— biological: new avians, exotic botanicals,
mammals small & great, &, oh, piscine species.
It’s the same thing every spring
with indigenous Homo sapiens: Aleuts, Beothuks, Kwakiutls
& their art in soapstone, bone, cedar, feathers.
It’s always a new language,
a few new words of prayers for a new world,
the same fresh thing every spring.
Mason Street 