Sunday, September 15, 2013

Chichikov

PROSPERITY
By Pavel Chichikov

The little vernal pond has died,
A black sea small as some back gardens,
One small bucket lifted up
Contains the wilderness of Eden

Protozoans, water bears
Rotifers, unhurried snails,
Peepers, toads and salamanders
Leaving silent bubble trails

Once a rat snake on a log
Thickly sunning, somnolent
Engorged before with one fat frog,
Too thick to have a frog-shaped dent

And then a jewel of the pond
Disclosed when it had nearly dried,
A salamander black and gold
Which estivating had not died

Now a dusty crater, gray
As if it were a human town,
Prosperity a vernal pond
                       That will dry up and then sink down 


The Poetry of Pavel Chichikov

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