Your aunt found the sap boiled away

to a maple patina in the galvanized pan

and us, on duty, in the lean-to, unbuttoned,

flustered. Hands long as a man’s head, her black

boots, men’s size ten. She made a clatter to say

she’d arrived. Through a chink in the wall

you saw her knit cap, her buckets heavy,

full. She dashed the cold sap, gathered

from cans as she came through the trees,

into the forty-gallon trough. By then we were mostly

dressed. “Keep an eye on it this time,” she said,

and steam coiled up around her.

This spring the lean-to slumps toward the brook.

You can see gold tunnels in the wood, frayed punk

at the log-ends, and here a porcupine

gnawed for salt. You left town. I stayed.

And your aunt stooping to pick up our work

gloves, too near the fire, and toss them over, whistling

as she swung away up the bank and never told

about two girls in the woods, also still there.

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