Stillnesses by Penelope Scambly Schott

1

January wind. High above the wheatfield,
a large buteo hawk

unmoving

until, after long seconds, a slight wing flap
to hover in place.

2

Me at my desk, and the dog, having raced
across wheatfields,

sprawled out

on the squares of my quilt, breathing softly
into printed flowers.

3

Here on the compact screen of my laptop,
vertical sperm whales

slightly below

the surface of the ocean, enormous whales
heads up in a pod of sleep.

4

By the edge of a garden wall, the gritty ashes
of my father and my mother

buried on an island

where almost no one will still remember them
and I’ll likely not visit again.

Penelope Scambly Schott is a past recipient of the Oregon Book Award for Poetry. Her most recent books are ON DUFUR HILL about her small town in central Oregon and SOPHIA AND MISTER WALTER WHITMAN co-written with her dog Sophia.