native kind that knit and furrow roots
into deep moisture and know how to wait
—We couldn’t wait,
paid the man with big machinery to scrape
the cactus on that rise by the river that used to be
a pre-dam sandbar. We don’t know
what used to be here before
the grazing, the growing, the scraping
and the dams.
—Now I know the hidden
thin tissue, darkened with black lichen,
dotted with powdery green mosses, woven with fine
filaments of fungi, algae and bacteria—
crust of living skin, a long time coming
life binding life for more—
We wanted more
grasses and forage for birds and elk
who come through
—Dust blowing. Carbon
gone with the cactus—
Here, tell me
what is wild?
What was fixed
by sheathe and sheets and threads,
made from dust and air and little
water—captured, held, alive—
we tried to fix—
Crypto meaning hidden,
gamic meaning marriage. We wanted
what we wanted.
