by Tamara Madison
"
Heron so still we do not see him;
then, he opens his wide wings
and glides across the lake's
rippling mirror.
Blue dragonflies skim the surface.
Beneath the footbridge a turtle
feasts on the carcass of a carp.
A hawk wings low,
an omen across my path,
then vanishes into the brush
before I can really see him.
Green shadows ring the lake;
at the tips of a tall liquidamber,
pink leaves rustle
in late summer wind and I wonder:
Can it really be that I and we
are unworthy of all this beauty?
Tamara Madison is the author of the chapbooks “The Belly Remembers” (Pearl Editions) and "Along the Fault Line" (Picture Show Press) and three full-length volumes of poetry: “Wild Domestic” and “Moraine” (Pearl Editions) and "Morpheus Dips His Oar (Sheila-Na-Gig). Her fourth collection, Russian Honeymoon, is expected from Fernwood Press in 2026. Her work has appeared in Chiron Review, the Worcester Review, A Year of Being Here, One Art, the Writer’s Almanac, and many other publications. A swimmer, dog lover and native of the southern California desert, she is retired from teaching English and French in a Los Angeles high school.