THE UNDERWORLD

Once a spirit leader led us to
            a writhing sandy spring—
ancient water.

Today’s fog—
slow rain for the greenery— 
soaks the redwood forest.

Underground roots receive
            seined wetness and
                        brim and swell.

Mist, ocean’s gentle goodbye,
            rests in shaded river bends
where ghosts linger.

In the clouds we feel the Loch Ness behemoth, 
giant fish from the Ice Age.
                        All are blind.

Denise Low, Kansas Poet Laureate 2007-09, won the Red Mountain Press editor’s Choice Award for Shadow Light. Her forthcoming House of Grace, House of Blood is an archival and verse exploration of a massacre of Lenape (Delaware) Christians (University of Arizona Press 2024). She is a founding board member of Indigenous Nations Poets and curates the Indigenous Voices series for The 222, an arts organization in Sonoma County, California. She teaches for Baker University’s Professional and Graduate School.