An Oregon Message

When we first moved here, pulled

the trees in around us, curled

our backs to the wind, no one

had ever hit the moon—no one.

Now our trees are safer than the stars,

and only other people's neglect

is our precious and abiding shell,

pierced by meteors, radar, and the telephone.

From our snug place we shout

religiously for attention, in order to hide:

only silence or evasion will bring

dangerous notice, the hovering hawk

of the state, or the sudden quiet stare

and fatal estimate of an alerted neighbor.

This message we smuggle out in

its plain cover, to be opened

quietly: Friends everywhere—

we are alive! Those moon rockets

have missed millions of secret

places! Best wishes.

Burn this.