hazy skies weigh me down
it's an old disaffection
i sit by the river
anticipate immersion
and can only bring myself
to sit
so i sit
in the half sun free of half shadows
under alders greening
with fresh leaves
just barely unfurled
i sip tea
and lie back in the sun
and somehow drift off
the sun drifts off
and on and off
and the haze
drifts on and off
and into thin veils
and small puffy billows
and i sit up
and gaze at the water

as usual this year:

the currents ripple
back and forth and to and fro
like diamonds like snake scales
like silk, the other day
making dancing stars
today, no stars
but emerald glowing rocks below
and where the trees' roots
broken at the bank
scrape across the rising waters
the ripple is an undulation
a serpentine downstream curve
so i prepare myself
to wash away the stuck haze
weighing my mind
five times in and out of the water,
i wade back to the river bank
and find a wonderful surprise
beneath my alder friends—
water rising to my waist at last
and the current strong enough
it washes through the leg jue yin
and something hazy leaves me

i feel a glow rise to all my skin
as i stand and watch the water
in emerald glow and scaling currents
and immerse myself again
for another three times in and out
of the rising shallow depths
downstream in the emerald glow
round rocks right beneath me
and i wade back again,
through the clear cool deepening eddy
held by the alder's roots,
and i stand and find the north wind
who had been strangely biting on my arrival
has changed her tune and is balmy
and silky across my skin
all pink with the emerald waters

so i immerse myself as the sun emerges
and the sky blues as i make one long pass
breath held
through the emerald glow
over the clean cool rocks,
and rise to wade back
sloshing and splashing
more like a horse, or a dog,
to the river bank
through the deep eddy

i stand and bow
and revel in the afternoon sun
the blue sky
and my sudden lightness

on my way home,
i look to the mountains
to the north
haze still suspended
over distant ridges
and there behind the round evergreen
summit of small peculiar Roxy Ann
looming icy blue in the hazy veil
is a snowcapped volcano
its pure white pyramid
cloaked in the mystery
of a strange spring day

© 2001  by White Raven

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