Herewith, the latest selection from dusted-off published poetry and short fiction, circa 1970s vintage and beyond....
Hiking McClosky Road
The road turns uphill crowded
by maple and ash. Conifers long ago
logged out; the undergrowth thick
with fern and saplings. The
filtering sun transparents the green
of trembling aspen and a great beech
its bark the colour of elephants
whispers memory of forest giants.
An elm corpse hosts a woodpecker
thrumming a meal.
Wild orchids glow back shades of the
sun amidst time-riven boulders
broadloomed with lichen. the first
leaf offerings of fall lie cupping
last night's rain and we hike past
a beaverpond, its waters murky. Our
rustling flushes a sandpiper whose
frightened wings startle the quiet
air. At the beavermeadow tall grasses
lean past the wind and we hear a faroff
chickadee teasing. Further on there
is a lone crabapple tree bearing no
fruit but in its centre a birdnest
and nestled there, a scarlet apple.
c. 1978 Rita Rosenfeld
published in Harvest, June 1978
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