wooded trail,
long island, nova scotia,
isolated from the world.
seeing wildflowers
brings to mind
words
– bryophyte, saprophyte –
isolated
in memory.

meaning vaguely
surrounds each word –
delicate mist, clinging
lightly, clinging tightly –
quantum haze:
an electron, woven
around a nucleus.

any slight
perturbation –
 for the electron, an ion
     changing charge fields;
  for the meaning, a whisper
     offering other definitions –
could strip away the haze
leaving the core – nucleus, word –
naked, deserted,
like this island.