Night Across the Pond

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["Night Across the Pond" was written especially for my first poetry chapbook, The Lady in the Pink Hat, Candor Press, 1969.]

Then crept night across the pond
Casting shadows on greying
Weatherboard; like sullen ghosts
Those leafless talons grasping
Stretching like dying fibrous fingers
Still the pond chilled and trapped
Caught those splinters of the moon
And thrust them like sparks
From a struggling ember
Until the warmth was smothered
And the shadows crept back
Toward the dawn.

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Gershon Wolf

Date: 4/15/2021 7:49:00 PM

Wow. What a chilling effect those 'leafless talons' have on me reading this. Powerful imagery. Superb poesy, Milt, methinks. If I were younger, I might not sleep tonight. Bravo, Gershon

L Milton Hankins
Date: 4/15/2021 7:53:00 PM

Hope you don't live at the edge of a pond. This particular pond was behind a parsonage where I lived, and I recall watching the moonlight steal across the pond. The water looked black. When the moon was high, it reflected, casting those sparks. Thanks for your thoughtful comment. I'm glad it had an impact on you, Gershon. It was probably written before you were born!!!!