Self-Portrait as Nature Preserve  

To believe at least a piece of me  
is worth saving I slow plod 

over twigs leaves  weave prints 
where my body goes and god  

willing will return with phone  
and keys. Even as we speak 

the stream inside me seems  
to run dry knees like beech  

trees calcifying into quartz.  
The kids dart ahead delighted 

to have space potato chips  
packed. My wife and I  

hang back whisper we can breathe  
easier here.  

Then color- coded markers  
bid a footbridge     a lake      a hand- 

crafted bench before bright 
mirrored water that swears:  

Devoted Husband, Loving Father.     

JARED HARÉL

Jared Harél is the author of Let Our Bodies Change the Subject, winner of the Raz/Shumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry (University of Nebraska Press, Fall 2023) and Go Because I Love You (Diode Editions, 2018). He lives with his family in Westchester, NY. Follow him on Instagram @Jaredharel.