I have lived long enough
to know to stay
out of the water. Bug guts

a crushed red berry beside
me. If there’s poison off
the dock– weeds in everlasting

web, I have a lot of gnats
to catch along the muddy
path around the pond of singing

birds and bullfrogs leading
the way to Destiny’s house.

(originally published in Roi Faneant, Summer 2022)