Beside Goose Creek

Beside Goose Creek

Beauty of this kind cannot be rushed.

You must watch and wait.

The gentle trickling of Goose Creek

Cattails, their leaves green and old gold

In October sun,

Brown seed-heads of cow parsnip

Against yellowing willows,

Glossy black chokecherries

Forgotten by birds,

Scarlet leaves of sumac

Purple wild pea flowers,

Dry grass and sedge

In myriad forms and patterns,

Red dragonfly on rock,

Blue dragonflies dancing over water--

And the bees,

Hundreds of them,

Sipping the nectar

From white autumn asters.

Mountain bikes speed by unnoticing,

Leaf blower roars above traffic

Train sounds its horn.

This beauty of small things

Cannot be rushed.

Stop, wait, look,

And see the dragonflies kiss.