Sur la Glace

It’s a long shot.  From shore the pond’s inlet
looked like open water, which would never

freeze solid, and yet something called me out
onto that black sheet.  As I crouched and peered

beneath, my skate blades etched parallel waves
in sync with a split-screen, slow-motion film.

Two scenes played on the transparent surface:
my squat shadow refracting through water

on shades of brownish branches, stems and leaves
in sediment; the other, my image

reflecting off the ice, plaid pants, jacket
and bomber hat centered in a background

of hemlocks, clouds and sky.  Off camera
upstream, Canada geese cackled and honked.

David Ram retired from teaching community college and enjoys living in western Massachusetts, where he practices poetry writing and dory rowing: his recent poems appear in Amethyst Review, Gargoyle Magazine, Sport Literate, Stone Poetry Quarterly, The Orchards Poetry Journal, and elsewhere; his rowboat appears regularly on Nashawannuck Pond.