POND IN EARLY SPRING

Digitally enhanced photo by S. Auberle

No, this is NOT the snake referred to in the poem, it's just

a photo I've wanted to post for some time, and

couldn't find something to go with it...

POND IN EARLY SPRING

A tender green mist

embraces the aspen,

shyly, as if a frisky wind

might frighten it away.

The dandelions are a little timid,

a little scared that their yellow

is not yet bold enough.

Diving ducks don't care.

They're sturdy, brave

and efficient,

but the brown snake

wonders, as she watches me,

too soon? the grass

does not quite hide my passing...

Prairie dogs are scolding me,

racing back to their bumpy burrows

but I'm forgetting

the troubles of this world,

glorying in the snake,

the green mist, the yellow flowers,

this little Eden

of poetry and birdsong

and duckpoop

stuck to the ecstatic sole

of my shoe.

- mimi