She places one foot down,
then the other,
gleaming blades meet
glistening ice.
After a few tentative strides,
she stretches her legs, then pushes,
soon finding her rhythm,
propelling her forward,
away from the creek’s bank
where tufts of brown grass tremble,
following the meandering path
as it bisects snow-covered fields.
Her blades chatter over the ice, and
ring-neck pheasants startle from their
winter homes, rising into the air ahead of her
with alarmed flapping of wings.
Too soon the creek narrows down to nothing,
and she stops to gaze at the landscape:
drifts, dunes and diamond-studded snowbanks
crowd the creek and extend to the furthest horizon.
Since pheasants have flown their nest, she is
the only living creature in sight. She heads back
up the creek, her blades leaving proof of her
presence on that lonely stretch of virgin ice.
Mary Ellen Shaughan grew up in Iowa, but has lived in Western Massachusetts more than 50 years. She wrote, illustrated and self-published her first book, How to Clean a Squirrel, at age 11. She continues to write—poetry, fiction, memoir, and essays (but no more self-help). A collection of her early poetry, Home Grown, is available at Barnes & Noble and on Amazon and other online sites.
the water and the gills 