Morning Traffic

Some caribou settle
in place with an early
hunger. You will hunt

what it is like you to
want, the slow desire

it eats. You can’t hear
it first, but you will
run at the wide smell

of need. You will see.
It is in your nature.

From Alaska, Bret Shepard has lived throughout the Pacific and Arctic coasts. Currently, he teaches at Cabrini University. He is author of Place Where Presence Was, winner of Moon City Press’ 2019 Book Award for Poetry, and The Territorial, which won the 2020 Midwest Chapbook Award from the Laurel Review.