I. Springdale
274 mushrooms
in the back yard,
exploding swirls
on eight-inch caps
like strudel, like stilled
whirlpools.
Each one is born fully formed
popping up like bubbles,
such is the desire
of the unique
to show who they are.
II. Kent Falls
What came first, the steps
or the waterfall?
The stone in ledges
like knotted pine
or the white fangs
of an obsession
through the tiger eye
bursting like smooth glass?
Why did it decide
with wilderness ubiquitous
to write its poem down here?
III. Bull's Bridge
The Housatonic River
is older than these graves,
older than the grist mills
and iron foundries,
the broken bridges
and rusted turbines
in cracking dams -
all worthy opponents
all fallen to the moss
and still the river seethes
its dragon scales, its vapor trails,
its lion manes and thunder train,
its mighty plashing
asking us
for something.
