May 2021
Bio Note: I am a retired physician living in Neenah, WI. I am the author of two poetry chapbooks,
Northern Portrait (Kelsay Books, 2020), and A Glint of Light (Finishing Line Press, 2020). My
recent poetry has appeared in The San Antonio Review and Sky Island Journal. When not writing or reading, I
play acoustic folk guitar and explore the Northwoods with my wife and two Labrador retrievers.
On the Dock at Dusk
Light bleeds upward.
Trees stenciled black
against the clean sky.
Gradually the pinprick
stars. Crescent moon red
like a blood-dipped horn.
Water, still in the darkness,
a faint metallic shine along
the foot of the woods.
The lulling rise of night
noise. Crickets, bullfrogs,
the far off drone of a logging
truck. My prayer joins
the opera of dusk. I close
my eyes,
I receive this blessing.
Pig Tail Turner at His Junkyard
Dragonflies dipping and rising
in the grass. Their backs catch the light,
purple like church glass. Red maple
autumn everywhere. Hazy sunlight
on corn stubble. Maybe the scent
of fallen apples, last night’s skunk.
Each day has its personality.
You have to be still, take it all in.
Listen. That’s how you find the answers.
The slow, challenging, beautiful
heat of living. The breathing trees.
The circling hawk. You have to turn
over some stones, see what’s underneath.
Anyway, it’s noon, and here they come.
Guess I’ll have to open the gate.
This first guy’s got an old mattress.
He ain’t leaving that thing here.
This is a junkyard, not a dump.
©2021 Fredric Hildebrand
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