National Poetry Month: Day 19. “Boulder” by Sidney Wade

By

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

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.

Original poetry published by The Rumpus. More from this author →