to the twelve muskrats moving in a line behind my chain link fence at dawn in Salt Lake City on the first of September

 
in the beginning all the world was water

until you      moskwas

dove to the depths to gather a ball of mud

blew on it until

it became the whole earth
 

together this morning for safety

you prepare for the hard freeze

move quietly in the dark of a new moon
 

you hear glaciers crack thousands of miles away

carry a map of water in the desert
 

how did you draw it?

how can we read it?

Natasha Sajé is the author of three books of poems, including Vivarium (Tupelo Press, 2014); a book of literary criticism, Windows and Doors: A Poet Reads Literary Theory (University of Michigan Press, 2014); and a memoir-in-essays, Terroir: Love, Out of Place, published in November 2020 by Trinity University Press. She teaches at Westminster College in Salt Lake City and in the Vermont College MFA in Writing Program.
 

Header photo by Jan DeVos, courtesy Shutterstock. Photo of Natasha Sajé by David Baddley.