winner of the national River of Words Contest).
Birds carp at squirrels
in the mulberry tree.
Fruit falls into the grass
and is lost.
A ceiling fan
spins the lazy morning air
over her bed,
lifts small strands of her hair
of adulthood. The dark orbit of the bat is an example of phrasing
that readlly stands out and foreshadows the transition from
childhood to adulthood.
Last night the whir of blades
ominous enticed a bat to enter.
It began its dark orbit
around the mechanical wings,
circled for hours
in a perfect concentric path
dipping slightly in its course
above the sleeping girl.
When once the sleeper turned and sighed,
the bat shied into a corner,
its webbed wings tickling the wall.
recognized as possible, even it it isn't physically plausible.
The room lost its attraction,
the sky threatened.
The bat folded and disappeared.
Now the girl yawns,
opens her eyes to the mulberry tree,
the squirrels' chase, the birds' ruckus.
She stretches her thin white arms
and twirls and twirls,
her gown billowing
in the last rounds of childhood.