Harry Newman
Crystal Lake
Averrill Park, NY
can this be the first time
I’ve seen geese arcing
above me straining
the sky with their calls
or the first I’ve woken
to a woodpecker’s
insistent rapping from
the trees in the morning
or had deer so close
as they pad through
grass towards the water
have I grown this old
and the world so foreign
still I’ve only a child’s
knowledge to guide me
pictures of the animals
I’d touch on the page
believing they were real
cartoon drawings with
the names given to me
deer woodpecker goose
an Adam in reverse and
all I have for this long trip
from Eden outlines colors
and the surfaces of things
