Silent Pool
Once – I made stuff happen
[that never really mattered
to my kids] – now there is a
stillness in my slow ripples
[a quietude] – Silent Pool is
in my head – a son visited &
reported a ghost – Forty-ish
years ago I threw my stone
& counted every concentric
response – rings in a tree – I
age successfully [even with
my numbered debacles] – A
leaf is elbowed by a breeze –
my slung weight descends –
it settles in a rotted bed – As
I size up my pallid reflection
there is another face there –
one who cannot see deeper
than a reading of tea leaves
in held cups – Blinded fools
tell her of her lavish future –
I undress for her pleasure &
dive into water – I will swim
from her failing predictions
[told by a noisome woman]
& I’ll be a narcissist’s coquet
[sudden surface tension will
put me in her looking glass]