Resistance like
red spring poppies
under a pristine town
a river painted with
black where the depths
reach up
Cypresses spindle up
from a country house
white walls
Vague clouds of trees
the bed of poppies
leaping out like
a three-dimensional creature
from the flatness of
Idyllic Town, Europe
A road — a creek —
swerves toward the house
into the knotted cypresses
We ask ourselves
how long