Peter Makuck: Two Poems

Found

Out my study window

bare branches

and a brown lawn,

a consideration of how

I spend my light,

day after same

blank day,

how it’s not much better

until that lawn goes

orange at sunset

and tonight I expect

nothing from the salt swamp

at the boardwalk’s end

but the air

has a good tang of low tide  

when I turn on

my light.  The beam

catches a raccoon

out on the flats,

digging, looking,

for something to eat. 

My light

sends him on a run

to the cattails. 

Now half-hidden

his eyes glare,

eyes that remind me

I’ve been looking

all day

for something

found at last.

.

At The Retention Pond

Our bickering stops

when behind us

distant hooting

becomes a V of geese

losing its shape

as it quickly descends,

skidding into the water

and scattering.  Slowly

they reassemble

and paddle into the cattails. 

We stand

and watch until

they disappear into

the evening shadows when

even the water

regains its composure

becoming glass again

a mirror for treetops

and orange clouds.

You take my hand.

We begin to walk again

without words,

you humming a tune

we both like.

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Copyright 2021 Peter Makuck

Peter Makuck‘s many books include Mandatory Evacuation (BOA 2016). He lives with his wife Phyllis on Bogue Banks, one of North Carolina’s barrier islands.