Monday, February 9, 2009

Snowy Egret, spring 1980


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


Tricks and Treats

Like addicts of some vice
we keep coming back
to this place that looks
as good as it tests
and again hike trail
through Gatineau Park.

It's late September
the ground is muck and
we leave impressions among
those of the deer. Ferns
have withered, sumacs are
alight, maples burn
yellow and red.

Deeper in the woods
the gloom of late day
now and then the sun
glimmering through branches
on flickering dustmotes

sparkling spiders' webs
strung from the mast of
one conifer to another.
Fly Amanita pebble the earth
hiding evil intent behind
a gay yellow facade.

In the distance, the flick
of a white tail, the
shudder of a red rump and we
silently watch a brace of
deer absorbed in pasturage.

Sidestepping poison oak
(ankles still itching from
last encounter) we flush a grouse
and watch the heavy bird
flap frantically through brush.

c. 1980 Rita Rosenfeld
published in Snowy Egret, volume 43, number 1

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