Saw Whet
This morning owl calls echoed off hemlocks
a steady alarm note in search of mates.
Long ago, another forest in another time
knew that rasp of saw and file
as bells tolling while old growth fell.
To listen and hear both
breaking news and whetted blade
is to travel with teeth at a shared velocity
winging along subatomic orbits
repelled here
aligned there
like a territorial call
or the bite of a saw.
If each connection changes everything, then
the lessons of friction are best expressed
as a sum: Power is relational.
The crown that drops with each tree cut
every school bombed
another file redacted
will crack
with enough resistance.
Dawn breaks. The owl persists
calling in new kin, honing the reminder
that even giants fall.