Axes
After whose stroke the wood rings,
And the echoes!
Echoes traveling
Off from the center like horses.
The sap
Wells like tears, like the
Water striving
To re-establish its mirror
Over the rock
That drops and turns,
A white skull,
Eaten by weedy greens.
Years later I
Encounter them on the road---
Words dry and riderless,
This line brings to mind the idiom “eating at me,” meaning the cruel words are continually troubling. 
 The “weedy greens” also suggest slime or something fungus-like, perhaps because of the previous reference to water. The long vowels, and  assonant  ‘ee’ sounds reinforce this rather repulsive idea. 

Words