Harry Newman

Crystal Lake

Averrill Park, NY

can this be the first time
I’ve seen geese arcing
above me straining
the sky with their calls

or the first I’ve woken
to a woodpecker’s
insistent rapping from
the trees in the morning

or had deer so close
as they pad through
grass towards the water

have I grown this old
and the world so foreign
still I’ve only a child’s
knowledge to guide me

pictures of the animals
I’d touch on the page
believing they were real
cartoon drawings with

the names given to me
deer woodpecker goose
an Adam in reverse and

all I have for this long trip
from Eden outlines colors
and the surfaces of things