21 July 2019

By Philip Kuepper

A blue bottle hovered
above the bottle-green
water, which oak
and maple over-arced,
a tunnel of cool
in the summer hot noon,
where a rower had found repose
from the blistering sun.

It was a place for collecting
one’s thoughts, thoughts
that had fallen away
during the over-busy week.

The stillness of the water spoke a volume of silence.
And on such water, one’s thoughts
came back to one,
of how much there is
one forgets to remember:
the missed appointment, the late payment.

Yet in this tunnel of cool
perspective was kept.
The appointment can be rescheduled,
the payment made, late.

Tension dripped away like sweat.
Muscles unknotted,
message by the fingers of ease,
sweet respite achieved.

(13 July 2019)