The Rock Monster in the Trees

Somehow someone snatched up
All the pebbles caving
Under an overhang

Surrounded by aspens
Or by one aspen's clones
And scooped them in a cairn.

That was a human thing,
The cairn, but the monster
Was made only in mind,

Being coincidence
Or at least not social
In shape, an overhang

That only to the mad
Ape out of Africa
Could suggest a great face,

A giant's open maw
Made up out of balanced
Dirt, stones, and erosion.

No beast that dimension
Ever waited in woods
For food. Why perceive it?

It gapes, waiting to bite
The imagination
That gives tongue to its teeth.