LATE FIRE-SEASON

When I am tired in the day from too little sleep 
            or too much life, I like to walk 
the well-trod paths left by deer 
            in the last tall grass, find the dish-
shaped beds they’ve made in the silvery reeds 
            from summer’s flowers, balsam root 
that flames and flares from May through June. 

Last night the new moon glared 
            orange in the early dark. It rose 
like a crescent eye over dying hills
            and cast its gaze on the mundane life 
scratched out here. A mid-century human 
            and a dog on a leash. Smoke and ash
in the breeze. Everywhere, the earth burning.

Subhaga Crystal Baon (they/them) is a Queer poet living in rural north central Washington on unceded Methow land. They are the author of four collections of poetry, including most recently the Isabella Gardner Award-winning Transitory, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Poetry, from BOA Editions (2023), and Surrender of Water in Hidden Places, winner of the Red Flag Poetry Chapbook Prize (2023).