Bull Frogs Croon (Suite)

[i. Night Fishing]

The water is a glaze
Like loneliness at ease with itself
I cast and close my eyes for the whir out across the water
The line striking the surface
And sinking

I like waiting
For it to settle on the bottom
Then I jig it up a little
I imagine
The lure in utter dark

I play it lightly. Fish rise
Just shy of the surface
They play their glints
Off the moon on the water
I see too my own loneliness

It's not too big
And it breathes easily
Soon, it may pretend it's rain
Soon, it may pretend it's rain

Rain blurs the water
There is nothing wrong
With rain
I take a deep breath and I cast
And cast

[ii. The Darkness]

Say you are out for a walk
And somewhere through the trees
You walk out of everything in your head

Or off by a window in thought
And what you look out to
A crease of trees perhaps you don’t see at all
But what you are thinking there in the trees

As you open like this through a window
Or walk and walk into a glazing
Then say darkness falls

Darkness farther back than the cave you felt into
Farther back than violence to animals

Darkness farther back than water you dove into
Hands in front of your face
To feel your way down and know
This darkness did not begin did not gather

Then something backing off it seems as you come in
Re-renters you and crosses you over
The sleep of the living and the dead

[iii. Valentine]

Big frogs croak
Baby frogs slither;
I’d rather go broke
Than not be with her

Bull frogs croon
Slugs wiggle wider;
I’d live in ruin
To lie down beside her