ON STONY CREEK
Only to be, to let time silt,
meandering through slight
riffles and concavities,
shade shuffling shade,
to keep no account
of distance and direction,
dug in, out of the current,
twiddling a crawdad claw,
amassing on my back whatever
curls in eddies, as the stonefly
takes the passing bric-a-brac
to blend in with the creek.
Later the hour may come
to climb a leaning cattail
into heat, to split
and sharpen with the dragonfly,
to drill my needle
through the fleeting sun.
Kristin Camitta Zimet is the author of Take in My Arms the Dark, a collection of poetry. She is the editor of The Sow’s Ear Poetry Review. She has recent poems in Salamander, Atlanta Review, and Plant-Human Quarterly. Also a Master Naturalist, she volunteers with The Nature Conservancy, the Virginia Native Plant Society, and the State Arboretum of Virginia.
