In Wells Mills Park- I

A spectator walk was my intent
On carved out paths with blazes marked
A stretch for leg and lung
begun
in early morn through cedar bog
bark-knot pine-cone

Before the vroom from off-road
helter-skelter wheels
could shatter silence bird or thought
On quiet needled ribbon roads
through soft-soled yielding rubber boot
the bump and push
of root and rock

Where grey green skeletal sponge-like things
reveal themselves
Surprise!
where tufted moss climbs trunk
splats of emerald Hope
catch winter sun lead my way
through filtered slanting ray
bounce tiny jewels into my eye
off patient twig at rest

Surprise!
A dappled snow bank remnant
down below
in moist dark bog-hollow

a footnote near
a close-nailed narrow bridge
to cross
with creaking cold footstep
freezing mud, crystal craze
phase change
icy water sheets crunch
echoes into the air.

In huddled laurel grove away
droop satin curled yet green clusters
resist the freeze
point heavenward small spring tips
excited by too-warm days
fooled by melting rains
Wait for-
tomorrow’s nose dive dead fall drop
best beware, best heed Frost warning:
keep cold…

End of Part I