Pond

 

Pond Life, painting by Elizabeth Wade, 2023

[Pond]

 

Pond life the water drop

world suspended an eye

falling very very fast.

 

The tear too curving down

pond meeting a future

carrying consciousness

 

settled into contours

a bigger pond flows a life

in grasses just passing through

 

blessed reflections sun affords

thirst attraction

a puddle a lake a sea.

 

Head entailed

bursts hearts hundredfold

transitory bliss

 

and is it sufficient to say pond

has neither beginning

nor end

 

then the hard yards

inching expanding

into the sunlight of do and die

 

forms find form bodies

finding the balance

furrowing the pond water

 

rising from black soil, expanse

containing multitudes then

evaporated gone

 

to land elsewhere

bubble up or make maelstrom

one clear drop after another

 

sanctuary to egg and seed

the life of the age

breasting the swell.