Poetry
~
Reflections From Life Itself
Cattails
I grew up in Hamilton Massachusetts near Sagamore Creek, where the cattails and the skunk cabbages grew in abundance in the marsh surrounding the Creek. At the right time of year, the cattail heads would be ready to burst and the lightest touch could send showers of seeds flying with the wind. Depending upon the ripeness of the skunk cabbages and the number we stepped on, we would return home bringing the pungent odor of skunk with us.
With the announcement of Sarah's engagement, the
notion of the 'new life' represented in this incipient family was strong on my mind.
Cattails
An autumn expedition
along Sagamore Creek,
crisp fall air brimming
with frog calls and
pungent skunk cabbage
recalls boyhood delights of
a generation ago.
simple pleasures of
cattails used for swords
and spears until
they, or we, collapsed —
cattails full to bursting
with new life swept off
on unseen winds to places
known only to God and time.
Blessed new life in the
air.
—SRB - July 22, 2003
For Brad and Sarah
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