LilyPads

Lilypads

    "Leapfrog"  watercolor collage by Diane Wlezien

I sit on a lilypad centered in my own little pond

jostled by ripples of current and wind

disturbing and distracting me from thoughts I cannot hide from.
This scorching sun reflects off glistening water
so haze distorts any revealing realities.
How did this tadpole become so different?

Birds came to my pond

and they chirped guilt
cawed conformity
and screeched shame,
drowning other sounds .
My cricket melodies were lost.

My tadpole tail absorbed.

I gained new footing on a solid world
where life and society expanded my scope.
I had to buttress fortitude with hope
to find a safe place with flies to savor
and spans to jump over in joy.

I still wonder how my wonderful tail left me,

back when thoughts  of being eaten
were nothing but swamp mists,
and  fears of  summer drought
that would leave me  homeless
were  just  fleeting musings  of a vaporous mortality.

Under my lilypad there remain veiled secrets,

hidden truths  still ripple to be remembered and recognized .
Life  brought baptisms and maybe a little knowledge;
Is it nature to nuture forgotten needs ?
I do aspire to humility in humanity.
But guilt and shame are not part of my truth.

 -Jerry Wendt 2015