Repository 21-22

Herewith, the latest selection from dusted-off published poetry and short fiction, circa 1970s vintage and beyond....

Snowshoeing

On our modified
Green Mountain
Bear Paws
we trek
this frozen streambed
this Ottawa Valley wood.

Although we forbear
as sensitive barbarians
to obtrude on
neighbours' groundspace
here
we tread seedlings
crack helpless frozen
branches
heedlessly

marvelling in mirage
of beauty
unseen by cerebral lens
of laden boll and bough.
For long past years

this ambiance
has hosted hostility
defenceless eyes
hidden
hatred of intrusion
through thicket
of familiarity.

Evidence of owl-
snatched hare
reveals itself
on pristine blanket
grouse tracks
droppings.
Mice-tentative steps

shield from us
their tenants
we stride on happy
oblivious harbingers
of unnamed animal dread.

c. 1977 Rita Rosenfeld
published by Repository Press winter-spring 1977