Sandra Kohler
Transformations

Great Meadow, near Walden,
Two days before my sixty-ninth birthday

On one side of the trail through the marsh
     my husband balances camera on tripod
          setting multiple exposures
     for the meadow's frieze of water lilies:
          acres of them yellow, cream
               blossoming
          flickering butterflies
The wind ruffling the lily pads turns them
     into a flock of birds - fat green
          herons grazing on leaves
               green as they

On the other side of the trail
     a sleeping goose balances on one foot
          yoga stork pose
     black head tucked under one wing
          left foot under the head
               tiny feathers at the tip
          of his tail quivering
     when his balance falters

Behind the goose among purple loosestrife
     yellow mullein a burst of rose pink
          hibiscus flowering
     such lush rococo petals
          the other wildflowers
               seem weed

The river that runs along the meadow,
     dammed, turns pond, surrounded
          by woods ... woods decaying,
     never to be decayed...
          Water moving - rippling, shirring,
   crimpling - like the bay
at sunrise. All these waters - bay ocean pond marsh
     river - a skin on the earth
          eternally wrinkling
               never to be shed.

 

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