a lifetime of social distancing

{sorry to be inactive Flickr friends -- still recovering}

 

Exiles

 

Kneel deep in the stream

to hunt crawdads

where honey brown water

glissandos

over pebbles

and sunlight

trickles through maple branches

like syrup. What light!

How I wish to sponge it

onto a brush as a painter.

A crab: pinchers, antenna, legs,

two black prong eyes,

its sudden exile into air,

blind and upended by some inscrutable force,

so unlike the white butterfly

which flickers past with its cargo

of nectars. Where do

the thousand fluttering leaves

of remorse settle? And who,

if not these sparrows,

will chide us for transgressing?

This moment seems chilled by a cloud.

Let us poke the squirming fellow

with a stick to see if he will pinch it

and hold on

for dear life.

 

--Miguel deO

Done