Walking the Park in the Timeof Barrett and Kavanaugh

A plastic ribbon
marks one thick limb
of a cottonwood
grown into a V
so tall and wide 
it could be
a giant woman
who fell, 
who can say how,
from a sovereignty
so high that
when the ground
swallowed her—
hands, head, 
breasts, uterus—
only her legs
remained splayed 
above earth.
Stunned, immobile,
wooden with fear,
one thigh, leaning out
too far, gartered
pink for the saw.