EARTH WORK
	On planting longleaf pine seedlings at Black Ankle, North Carolina

I among half a dozen others
	zigzagged 

among the stumps and stump holes, 

	burned snags and slash,
jamming a dibble rod into duff, clay—

	wherever the soil yielded—

and rocked it side to side and back and forth,
	over and over

for the bedraggled seedlings 
	in the feedsack at my hips.

	We were doing 
the Earth's work, a labor

	of millennia, to grow back
the pine woods, and in our own language
	
pray for just enough 
	rain and just enough fire.
	
I heard metal against wood, 
	against stone. 
	
I heard roots fumble and creep in the dark.

Maura High lives in Carrboro, North Carolina, with her husband and a small dog. She has published widely in print and online journals, most notably in Indelible. Her poem “Verbesina occidentalis” won this year’s William Matthews award and will be published in December in Asheville Poetry Review. Her chapbook, The Garden of Persuasions, is from Jacar Press.