Water Picture

written by


« Reload image

In the pond in the park

all things are doubled;

Long buildings hang and

wriggle gently.  Chimneys

are bent legs bouncing

on clouds below.  A flag

wags like a fishhook

down there in the sky.

The arched stone bridge

is an eye, with underlid

in the water.  In its lens

dip crinkled heads with hats

that don’t fall off.  Dogs go by,

barking on their backs.

A baby, taken to feed the

ducks, dangles upside-down,

a pink balloon for a buoy.

Treetops deploy a haze of

cherry bloom for roots,

where birds coast belly-up

in the glass bowl of a hill;

from its bottom a bunch

of peanut munching children

is suspended by their sneakers, waveringly.

A swan, with twin necks

forming the figure three,

steers between two dimpled

towers doubled.  Fondly

hissing, she kisses herself,

and all the scene is troubled:

water-windows splinter,

tree-limbs tangle, the bridge

folds like a fan.

© May Swenson