Ice Age Trail: Blackhawk Segment
bat symbols on posted houses
in open field welcome back
nighttime flights, feasts
on mosquitoes sustained
by daytime hikers
passing oak-red reflected
sunshine on Lake LaGrange
history hidden in the understory
tiny tamarack log cabin
one room held nine children
over lime kiln mortar
and fieldstone foundation
land once crowded
out, Sauk space revoked
flooded by farmers and miners
Black Hawk war of corn
name returned to this place
shared meadow, forest, lake
frost sweet riverbank grapes
left behind in the silence
tart taste of late fall afternoon
haunted by echoing Barred Owl
calls of who, who,
who cooks for you?
Katrina Serwe
Katrina Serwe, BS, MS, PhD…it took her three degrees to figure out she’s really a poet. Now she’s on Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail writing poems and sharing hiking haiku on Instagram. Her poems have been published in Bramble, Moss Piglet, The Little Book Project, Muse 5, and the Solitary Plover.
Portage Magazine 