Elliott Niblock

OKONTO POND

Over the pondwater, white
blossom boon‘d branches
……….quake

at the weight of wind,
the mountain’s unmelted
……….snowtorched tip

framed just over treetrop,
as the bare-breath’d breeze
……….touches the water,

surface-tension trembling
in the sun, little lips of wet
……….light. April

and everything Other again,
rain-made and merciless-
……….ly-live

among the perpetual pines,
muskrats muck along the
……….mud-shore,

a spider suspended
in water-dropped web,
……….hung among the reeds,

and an unseen chorus calling
mate to mate, maybe a
……….meadowlark,

a nuthatch, or a rock wren
warbling its way out of
……….winter. And

always the day dims, dipping
into dusk, as an inkwell of
……….ambient light, lack,

as all along the shoreline,
the darkening trees
……….breathe.

_________________________

Elliott Niblock is a freelance writer living in Missoula, Montana. He is an MFA candidate at the University of Montana, and holds an MA from Harvard Divinity School.