I am a transplanted European, who has lived in Phoenix since 1978. My poems have appeared in many publications online and in print, and reflect my affection for the natural world, as well as occasional bewilderment at aspects of human behavior. My newest collection of poems is Bird on a Wire from Presa Press, and late in 2017 The Bitter Oleander Press will publish Shatter the Bell in my Ear, my translations of poems by Austrian poet Christine Lavant.  http://www.davidchorlton.mysite.com​
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Fer-de-lance
 

Beware the fer-de-lance when the forest draws you in.
It might be coiled
around a shaft of sunlight
                                             where it falls
onto the mud you follow through shadows
that drift against your face.
                                               Step carefully
where the path flows underneath a stream whose water
shatters on a stone.
Look ahead as you peel
away layers of sound to discern the call that pulls
you to its source. You could be inches
                                                                  from a trap
about to spring
                           but the lush
warm leaves steaming around you sparkle with sounds
and not even droning thunder
turns you back. Above your shoulder
on a bough dripping moss
                                               a sudden movement
stops your breath. You look, you look
and keep looking, but nothing
appears. And you realise it’s always what you can’t see
that bends its spine and stirs a little
as it considers whether
or not to strike.