Could Graze

cormorants swarm the pond, heads held high, arrogant?

no, their necks grow long to swallow fish, replenish

lungs with air, their feet invisible stroke stroke, propel

the birds forward & round, concentric rings of cormorants

trouble the fish, fish flee, birds dive, of hundreds of fish

some are eaten, overhead round & round the pelicans

gaze down, tilt & plummet & plash, more fish are eaten

herons & egrets swarm the shoreline, fish on the run

are eaten — fry, fingerlings, full grown — the pond

a field, the herd the mingled gleaners, fish are grass

Marbled Salamander

what does a salamander

think? oozing black smear of

body marbled with white

Ambystoma opacum is not

what’s on its mind, we peer

at bulging eyes, four- & five-

toed limbs, the top of a log is not

where a mole salamander

lives, a creature nothing like

a mole except it lives below

what are these tall shadowy

pulses of air? loud noises

that click & flow? what
triggers a salamander’s
belly & feet, empowers
its passage away from light

back to rich provender?

Twilight

geometers measure twilight

by degrees 

astronomical at 18

                                    nautical at 12

                                                                civil at 6

each stage seen by more observers

later wakers, non boaters

polloi who don’t revere dark night

makers of skyglow, burners

of porch light