Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes

Second June Blog. 8-6-15

A Few Short Steps

Stepping across pebbles and rocks
Whose flat surfaces, water has,
In aeons of time, worn smooth,
Glass-like.
I gaze at the minnows
Within the stream, darting here and there
In their daily toil.

Whispy fronds of water weeds,
Their tendrils carried on the current’s ebb,
Shine myriad greens.
Waving: movementsj
Like fingers playing a soulful piano,
Lifting, drifting, beckoning.

In shadowed crevices, crayfish abound,
Collecting detritus, ousting the indigenous.
Escapees from far afield,
Like the grey squirrel, mink, they are
Imports, considered
Environmentally bad.

Watercress grows in the shallows,
Rushes grow by the edge.
Kingfishers dart to the flashing fish,
Caught in the sunbeams,
Dinner for a colourful flier.

A tinkling stream where coots
And moorhens paddle in the deeper
Culverts, their chicks follow
Behind, scoopingj morsels
As they go.

Water voles hide in holes
Along the banks. Warblers
Sing from the…