Erosion Control

The perforated pipe daylights
in a bed of gravel
on the north slope --
 erosion control --
like the hay we
spread over the bare
earth,
the care with which we
seed the steeply fragile
streambank,
the way we touch
palms to hair,
hips, brush
fingers over shoulders,
whatever offers itself
in passing
these summer
twilights of uncontrollable
hearts’-slide.