Produced by Maine Poetry Central and Dennis Camire

This week’s poem is by David Moreau of Wayne.

 

His Wife Invites Him to the Brownfield Bog

By David Moreau

 

Red-winged blackbirds

glideacrossthemarsh.

Redstarts, chickadees, gnatcatchers and veeries flit

and chirrup their myriad tunes.

Mosquitoes pierce and deerflies bite.

Royal fern, dogwood, meadowsweet and winterberry

edge the dirt road. Red maple and speckled alder

cluster in the sedges.

 

He asks her the names of everything:

leopard frog, green frog, wood frog, bullfrog,

least flycatcher and painted lady butterfly.

He wonders does she get tired of him asking?

 

A peanut butter sandwich, an oatmeal raisin cookie

for each of them. She breaks a leaf of wintergreen

and holds it to his nose.

 

The ground soft, their footsteps careful,

water lilies and cranberries abundant.

Damselflies flicker blue at their hands.

 

She calls pshsh pshsh pshsh

and looks expectantly

into the cluttered branches of the silver maple

where a dozen pair of tiny black eyes

dart back at them amazed.

 

Dennis Camire can be reached at [email protected]