Ripples on a Pond...

by Louis B. Shalako

c2010

All Right Reserved

Ripples on a pond
A stone, in-thrown
A splash, gurgles around
Rings of effect
Outwards are sown
Unbothered the fishes
Unanswered as yet
Rings ripple outwards
He cares not, the egret
The frog, he does not fret
They're used to getting wet…
The shore is uneven
The pond irregular-shaped
First the wave hits here
And then it hits there
Turtle he submerges
Finally the surge hits
The back of the first little bay
The other end of the pond
Is still quite a ways away
At some point the wave’s reflections
They come back to the middle
Some go all the way across
Before they meet another
And are reflected yet again…
The surface of the pond is all a-jumble
The Polynesian
He is heard to mumble
“That way lies land—
“There’s people there, too—
Instructing the steersman,
Who knows just what to do
Whether it’s smoke on the horizon
Jungle telegraph,
Or some watery rumour mill
He can even tell us
Just exactly how far it is
“Just as a stone maps the pond—"
“The waves chart the sea—"
A bunch of waves reflecting-
Reflecting what they’ve seen.