tadpoles – John Peterson

February 13th, 2013 by admin

-for devon

last night the pond was the size of a small hat

ten or fifteen of you holding on enough water

only to cover your back and keep the sun off

foot prints of coon and coyote dog and deer

and small bird circling down from reed covered

banks across cracked mud and soggy bottom

you squirm hoping against time and biology that

legs will sprout in time a race against summer sun

large and small creatures an eternity of narrow chances

one of you moves from runny mud back legs

near strong enough unsure that this is the time

but choices going fast as noon day

feeble hop out of dwindling mud toward

parched landscape that may offer escape

from the certainty of diminished water

you will make it if time and biology

cross precisely