Boulder
this world
is full
of beautiful
surprises
here’s one:
one bright
blue noon
on Loon
Lake I sat
on the porch
eating lunch
and watched
a chipmunk
on the compost
pile nibble
a strand
of spaghetti
until he’d
consumed
it all it
pleased
me well
to share
a meal
with such
congenial
company until
I heard a tremendous
fluster in the lake a moose
had quietly been munching
on some underwater plants a fine
delicacy to northern ruminant types
and what I had taken to be a boulder
turned out to have been her shoulder
as her submerged mouth hoovered
up all the juicy stems of my water
lilies until her hungry lungs
clamored for air and she
reared her head in
a great splendor
of bright water
a sloshing
slurping
slurry
of mud
and stems
profuse and
dripping
from her
streaming
maw as she
observed
me coolly
and then
headed down
for more
SIDNEY WADE has published five collections of poems, the most recent of which is Stroke, (Persea Books, 2008). She has served as President of AWP and Secretary/Treasurer of ALTA.
