Poem

Passed

The tall grasses
fluid in the morning breath
are gone
mowed down
while I slept
or wrote
or failed to walk
the afternoon gone to dusk so fast
yesterday
irretrievable
today
this barren hillside
that secured the pond
once sheltered two lithe fawns
a white-tailed rabbit
and a host of crickets.
This shimmering field
that lifted finches to their song
charming snake and lizard on their slither
this embankment
now left to hold alone
against the press of water
wanting to escape
empty into beyond
not stay
where the comfort of companionship
had been wiped clear
by rotational stroking
stripping life and sound
leaving
only stubble and this
awful silence.