Cattails in Autumn
- Cattails in Autumn
for Tagg
Like a marshmallow on the endof a stick, the half-spent cattailheld its last seeds before winterforced the final eruption of softand airy whisperings into light.
The sun fell on the boggy bankwhere each step I took oozedwith muddy water as we cutand bundled them. Sometimesmy brother and I would make
swords of the stems and lanceeach other in mock battleswhere the seeds would breakaway. Sometimes all it tookwas for us to blow on the ends
like candles and the chill airwould burst with white fireworksthat floated on the endless breeze.And always I felt a little sadnessas I watched with a child's joy
the air take the seeds. So manyI couldn't count them. So brightin the September sun. Dispersingbeyond my reach, my vague desireto keep what could not be kept. [End Page 645]
v. p. loggins is the author of The Green Cup, The Fourth Paradise, and Heaven Changes. His poems have appeared in The Baltimore Review, Poetry East, and Poetry Ireland Review.
