River Paddle On A Frosty Day
Read my To Do list - threw it on the fire. Put on my red coat. Found two dry oak leaves in a pocket - catch a falling leaf, get a wish, I remembered, so I put them on the fire too, to let the wishes be free. And walked back to where that tree stood bare, and further through the woods. I found treasures, such as stacks and globs of fungus growing in turned up roots - that tree too I knew - before it fell, recalling how its roots were snaky and caught at our feet. I found the drowned quarry blooming with algae like some suspect cauldron, stirred with weeping branches. Heard the wind above singing in a language I recognised but could not translate. Rested briefly at my favourite bench, a felled tree this one, left jutting over the river. Strolled to where the river has a beach, storm strewn in flat stones; the wind chill too much for an unplanned swim by an un-furred creature. At my feet, two heart shaped stones. Puddles have skins of ic