i.
A newly awakened
marsh,
now a wetland,
houses some rare birds.
Some of them
are migratory
avians.
They straddle timelines
when they lift their
powerful talons
out of this bog.
Behind sunken
leafless trees
forever soaking
their legs in
these saltless waters,
under-construction buildings
rise like silos,
enjambing their
tentative futures around this unusual
abode of nature.
ii.
A surprise awaits
the seeker here.
Mad dogs,
high on callous adrenaline,
test speed limits
on their automated chariots
on the lip of this wetland.
Sentries yawn with
their learned stock of indifference.
Only a peaceful canine,
sleeping under a diminutive plant,
is the pacifist here.
Tranquility reaches the seeker
when he is to himself
but it never
becomes
a lived reality.
A Wednesday evening such as this
comes to him.
The reeds, families of birds
and placid water
live amongst the vulgar
outgrowths
of a mannered city.
We live together.
Grey Sparrow Journal 