Eastern Chipmunk · Ledges Overlook

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by Nathan Kemp

“That softness around your eyes, a softness in your face. Almost the way you feel when you’re about to start crying. That, to me, is love. It can be romantic love, it can be friendship love, it can be family love, it can be love for a chipmunk. It can be love for anything.”
—Moby

a race from one post
to another it can go unnoticed

I am not looking for
pests

during the mating season
one can harvest

165 pine nuts a day
seasonal stocks of

forest seeds fruit
mushrooms & stems sometimes

my diet is striped red
sugar maple sardines cherry

skins underground
a bunker of lean grains

I hibernate but do not
store fat during

I put extra food in the sheets
a hiding place for energy while you sleep

if it is perishable or
if it is stolen or destroyed

grocery stores offer
important groceries in winter

high summer sometimes
all year round

I get lost & gather
or rather I store food as a hobby

in tunnels meters long
rooms connected to the surface

the entrance is invisible there
are no traces of excavated soil

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Traveling Stanzas community arts projects bring poetry to people’s everyday lives through innovative methods and digital platforms.