One chooses

One chooses
where to die

by choosing
where to live,

where to rise
in the morning,

where to take
his night’s sleep,

where to stand
forever rooted.

Where he marks
the fragile world.

The sun, the rain,
this black earth,

what he’s chosen,
the place he’s stained.

Here is where
I lay me down.

Winter morning

Mourning doves
in the net of trees.

A squirrel
curled in its tail

along a branch.
The winter fog.

There are not enough
words for love.

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Tom Montag is most recently the author of In This Place: Selected Poems 1982-2013. He is a contributing writer at Verse-Virtual and in 2015 was the featured poet at Atticus Review (April) and Contemporary American Voices (August). Other poems are found at Hamilton Stone Review, The Homestead Review, Little Patuxent Review, Mud Season Review, Poetry Quarterly, Provo Canyon Review, Third Wednesday, and elsewhere.