59
Morning Catch
On summer mornings
you must approach the pond on foot
and with caution
not to startle the early arriver
or unknown remainders
from the night,
remember ...
when the bullfrogs went silent,
a missing sound half heard in sleep,
perhaps some-thing still lurks
there in the dense, shadowed overgrowth,
Each morning an examination
before rising, done quietly,
alone.
You and me and the pond,
man-made as we are,
swampy
dug out debris gathered
to create this body,
we find security floating
behind our earthen dam,
while beneath,
original wilder wetlands run unbroken
where mysteries, like morning mist,
still arise.
based on detail from Kyosai Sketchbook woodblock print, 1881