“Tracking Seeds” by Matthew Haughton

i. Tree Latches

The latches come down
the hill,
each falling separate
from the other,
spindled among
the breeze-born.
The life of a latch
is to be seeded
back in the earth,
light as a thumb
slipped half-under
running creek water.
And this is paradise,
this spilling
of seeds downhill.
Under the amber-light,
the calm birthing –
the gust and scatter
where the latches fall.

ii. Whirlybirds

Little pink
fans
spill from
the tree
limbs,
gathering
below,
like tornoff
mosquito
wings,
like motes
passing
windowpanes.

iii. Hitchhikers

Out of branches,
the hitchhikers
sail into the
grass.
Steady as fishhooks,
they remain
stillborn,
waiting
to seed
their sense
of resurrection
off the backs
of passing beasts.

–Matthew Haughton,
Bee-coursing Box
Accents Publishing

Matthew Haughton was born in Colorado in 1977. At an early age, his family returned to eastern Kentucky, where his lineage stretches back over a century in the region. Matthew is a graduate of the University of Kentucky. Most recently, he was a finalist in the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning’s Next Great Writer Competition. His poetry has appeared in literary magazines such as Kentucky Monthly, Still: The Journal, and The Heartland Review. This is his first published collection of poems. He lives and works as an artist and educator in Lexington Kentucky.