an outdoor concert:

at the nearby playground
the screams of children
still heard over
cannon fire

the silence of the crowd . . .
then applause.

through the pond’s
murky surface
blue fins and scales of perch
their yellow bellies as vibrant
as the sun
towards dusk

and their minnows
the bigger they are
the further they are
from the shallows
from our sight

but here they are now
as if attending
and listening with us.