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Dark Pond with Iris
- Red Hen Press
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74 Dark Pond with Iris The bold bullfrog’s luminous eyes seemed dazed, I thought, then no, cartoonishly amazed, then finally, I saw them in their fixed stubbornness, his cheeks puffed out in defiant stead. The small garter snake had caught him from behind, and the snake’s undulating muscle mercilessly and deliberately worked its mouth up and over the frog’s back in agonizing millimeters. an appalling thing to see at the edge of our goldfish pond! My daughter knelt there too, watching awhile, but soon ran back to her tire swing after the frog took no notice of us, his cheeks still full of air and quiet concentrated fight. It was only later, when I came back to see him almost swallowed down, his small green cone of face not crowning, but disappearing, that I realized this is so contrary to the way I must have come into the world, passively being worked down the dark birth canal, 75 sliding out with eyes stuck closed, not even minutely aware of the beginning of this miracle: that one day I’ll likely fight this hard to stay in a world I have exerted no will or muscle to enter. ...