Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Below the Waterfall



Tinges of evening stain the gray sky.

Herons swing low, languidly drifting

just above the floating wave- sparkle.

At the water’s edge, cicadas rev

like a factory of sewing machines.

In the pinewood, a woodpecker leans

into a loblolly with insistent tap-bursts.


From a high porch I brood

about the riprap girdling the shore. 

It is losing its grip, slipping

unhurriedly into the current that

courses for home, the salt of the sea.


I suppose we should do something

to secure the stones, to ward off

licking erosion.  I suppose we should.

Yet, it seems a futile gesture,

giving the finger to time and nature,

who are sure of winning this puny contest

– our seventy-some years

    up against their millions.


                                  -Jeanette Willert 

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