Issue Seventeen – December 2010

Back Waters

By Kay Mullen

				The snow goose glides
				back waters of the pond.
				Pigeon-gray patches of sky
				mirror her fading wings.  Soon
 				she will be white as reflections 

				of the snow-covered mountain
				rippling beside her among 
				tangles of brush, vast ranges 
				of cedar and birch.  At night, 

				the snow goose nests 
				near the salmonberry, morning 
				light slips in an out of the pond 
				depending on fog or hovering caps 
				on the summit.  Sometimes 

				the mountain may disappear 
				as if it had never been.  Nothing 
				is ever far from extinction.  Nothing  
				certain what the day will hold.
				What’s seen from any perspective 

				still shines despite the dark 
				when the snow goose sleeps 
				near the heron with bedstraw swirls, 
				and the sweet-scented blooms 
				of bog-orchid

© Kay Mullen

Kay Mullen ’s poems have appeared in various poetry journals including Valparaiso Poetry Review, American Life in Poetry, Pontoon and others. She has authored three poetry books and is the recipient of Pushcart Prize nominations, and Best of the Net. Kay earned a Master of Fine Arts from Pacific Lutheran University and currently teaches and lives in Tacoma.

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