Changes

The sun moves from north to south of east 
swings around the notch in Nicolai Ridge. 

The pasture grows tussocks, skunk cabbage 
some years, bull frogs now and then. 

Pint-size tree frogs hide in ferns, hunt from
windowsills. One year the sweet clover grew

five feet tall, studded with vanilla beads. Warm
air spun gnats on the curved S of earthen berm. 

Red-winged blackbirds on cattails sang deer 
knee deep in grass, osprey a winged metronome

spring and fall. We arrive at five, skirt 
fawns and fields of Canada geese.

RUBY HANSEN MURRAY

Ruby Hansen Murray is the culture columnist for the Osage News. On East Sunny Sands, about Puget Island in the lower Columbia River, is forthcoming from Red Bird Chapbooks, 2027. Star People, focused on Osage family and land, will be available in 2028 from Sun Tracks, University of Arizona Press.