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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