World in a Pond

World in a Pond

Trying to do more right than wrong,

climbing the livelong day,

                        at times the most                        

surprising allies arrive to stand beside you.

Raw volunteers shaking sleep from their eyes,

ready to lend queer shoulders to the wheel.

Today, that magical rock crevice we called

                                    The Pond

when it filled after several days’ rain

and morning found a frog, or two of them,

calling it home. Plopping and diving                     

and floating up goggle-eyed to check us out.

We brought them minnow companions, scooped    

with a little dipper net from the bay, snails

and crayfish, sunk in clumps of cosy moss and

grass weighted with stones so bright-veined

                        under the clear water.                       

World in a pond all our wonder and attention,

                                    absorbing us so

utterly we’d no regret when another day’s passion

snatched us away, too suddenly to watch 

Pond’s slow diminishment or wonder how its

citizens always found their way back to the 

                                                river.