2024 NaPM 16 April

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It was a mile to get to the pond
following the white rock lake shore
then tracing it around, 
to the beginning of the first slough.

A few hundred yards above 
through rocky fields of wildflowers
an old oak stood over a pond fed by a spring.

A rattlesnake lay beside the pond
next to the small waterfall.
We studied each other,
he with what serpent wisdom
I can only guess at,
and did not move.
I maintained the certainty 
we were not enemies.
And so we sat until I felt
I’d exhausted my welcome
and moved away.

I never met him again,
though the pond was a weekly visit.

By now, his land is destroyed,
his future generations, stamped out.

But something in that meeting
has held my attention
for half a century.

Shades of DH Lawrence

---

Rise and Shine


Maturity, you see,
is not being Phaeton.
Get up every morning,
harness the horses
and drive them
not too fast or slow
neither high nor low
ignoring clouds and sleet
wind, thunder, and rough air
like a semi-driver
but with that hard fusion burn
to keep always in check
never more angry
than this world can stand
or coldly unengaged
despite every temptation
to just stay home and let
Earth freeze and die.

Sunstroke madness
is for others. I’m Apollo
father of doctors
slayer of dragons
who still gets in the chariot
every dam’ day
and drives.

A fine one