Sally Bliumis-Dunn: "Mianus River Gorge"

                                           Not just for the fresh air
                                           or to walk together on
                                           this November morning,
                                           our white breath pulsing
                                           in the air. And not just to be
                                           distracted, from ordinary
                                           thoughts of work and worry:
                                           that moss, for instance on
                                           the huge granite rock, which
                                           from up close looks like
                                           a filigreed forest of ferns—
                                           being so tiny we could walk
                                           right through it: soft press of
                                           bare feet, it would have to be
                                           summer, moist green grazing
                                           our calves; or that hawk dipping
                                           from one branch to another;
                                           or simply by the old maples
                                           and oaks, the long gray
                                           irregular bars of their reaching.

                                           For all of these we went
                                           walking, but even more, I think,
                                           for that deer you spotted,
                                           standing in the stream,
                                           its fur coat blending in with
                                           the slow brown water.
                                           We could barely make it out.
                                           Otherworldly, the way
                                           it disappeared from time to time,
                                           and then reappeared, when
                                           it tilted its head, and we could
                                           see the arc of white on its nose,
                                           and for a moment, the glistening
                                           circles of its eyes. And how
                                           still it stood in the water.

"Mianus River Gorge" by Sally Bliumis-Dunn, from Talking Underwater. © Wind Publications, 2007.

Art credit: "A deer standing in the water," photograph taken July 7, 2012, by Bruce Atwell.