the lightning bug tree
in the middle of the grove

the sand break
in the middle of the river

the blackened angel cloud
in the middle of the noon sky

the stone and red leaf,
the driftwood and oyster puddle

the cold rain of winter,
a brown bear waking to the snow

a track along the ice
in the middle of the storm

December, the drought ending,
rain washed trees bleeding their color

and one quarried house
at the edge of the great swamp of snow

- Michael H. Brownstein