RIVERWOODS POEMS: A PAUSE BY A POND

A PAUSE BY A POND

We stop to sit awhile beside

Our pond, the asters to admire

(The royal purple, not the white)

And note the scarlet-turning sumac,

Hoping we may hear the flap

Of slow-descending heron wings

Or hasty mallard putting on the brakes

And ruffling up the water, though

We know our watering hole’s too small,

And yearly getting smaller, to attract

A southbound flyer not at all

Deluded by our wooden replicas.

At least we may sight the shifting V’s

And hear the goodbye calls of geese.

The fall migration’s underway

And only we must opt to stay.