ANON Raw duck stained to my fingertips-- earthy, exact pang: blood, salt, smoke-- Where I stalked across the marsh the grasses swept back behind me. Tall alders and beauty: an open orbit interlaced with crickets, cattail silk-- Where I drank from a bottle, the spilled water pearled into the murk. The eyeglass of an afternoon sun's mirror, a late tadpole thrashes through its golds-- Where I waded to the levee, where I crouched, the blackbirds made a center of me. The horizon fit with storms, rain a mile away and yet the ears sharpen-- Where I faded into reeds, deep-shadowed against the freshwater island's brush: shawl of moss across a freshly cut stump (pair of mallards swinging from a nail) --autumn in knowing autumn--
Anon.
Rzicznek, F. Daniel
ANON
Raw duck stained to my fingertips--
earthy, exact pang: blood, salt, smoke--
Where I stalked across the marsh
the grasses swept back behind me.
Tall alders and beauty: an open orbit
interlaced with crickets, cattail silk--
Where I drank from a bottle, the spilled
water pearled into the murk.
The eyeglass of an afternoon sun's mirror,
a late tadpole thrashes through its golds--
Where I waded to the levee, where I crouched,
the blackbirds made a center of me.
The horizon fit with storms, rain
a mile away and yet the ears sharpen--
Where I faded into reeds, deep-shadowed
against the freshwater island's brush:
shawl of moss across a freshly cut stump
(pair of mallards swinging from a nail)
--autumn in knowing autumn--