January 5 - January 9 Week 52/72
long draws of the train whistle
travel up through the valley over
hillsides covered in faint outlines of trees
carrying a cargo of memories
childhood counting games
from my grandparent's front porch
thick ice and liquid water
where messages from torpid trout
carp and pond turtles buried
deep in a shoe-sucking muck
rise in bubbles flattening themselves
against smooth, cold surface just
beneath the bellies of two mute swans
an inhale and exhale
life and death as a large
red-tailed hawk sits high above
watchful and waiting for
the slightest movement, beware
darling little mourning dove