The Sound of Sunlight

On the far side
of the canyon
light
is burning
through two
draws
like water
rushing
into an empty
riverbed.

A canyon wren
opens
her mouth
and a coyote
stops
mid trail
before vanishing
among juniper.

As we descend
the eastern wall
we look
down
onto
ponderosa
pine
and witness
the shadow
of a merlin
chase
the merlin
itself.

Behind us
in the meadow
where we lay
last night
the squall
of an elk
picks up
the sound
of sunlight
and joins it
in a flood
of bugling.

"The Sound of Sunlight" by Todd Davis from In the Kingdom of the Ditch. © Michigan State University Press, 2013.

Todd F. Davis is a prize-winning American poet and critic. He was born on March 29, 1965. He was schooled in Grace College and Theological Seminary, Northern Illinois University.


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