Foxtail Pine
cones prick you hand: Ponderosa
nobody know what they are, saying
“needles three to a bunch.”
….turpentine tin can hangers
….high lead riggers
“the true fir cone stands straight,
the doug fir cone hangs down.”
—wild pigs eat acorns in those hills
cascara cutters
tanbark oak bark gatherers
myrtlewood burl bowl-makers
little cedar dolls,
……baby girl born from the split crotch
…………..of a plum
………daughter of the moon—
foxtail pine with a
clipped curve-back cluster of tight
…….five-needle bunches
….the rough red bark scale
and jigsaw pieces sloughed off
……………scattered on the ground.
—what am I doing saying “foxtail pine”?
these conifers whose home was ice
age tundra, taiga, they of the
…….naked sperm
do whitebark pine and white pine seem the same?
…….a sort of tree
…….its leaves are needles
…….like a fox's brush
(I call him fox because he looks that way)
…….and call this other thing, a
;;;;;;;foxtail pine
by Gary Snyder
from The Back Country;
New Directions Publishing, 1963