The Sunlit Brook

I dipped a foot

Into the sunlit brook

Where the dippers flew

Gathered pebbles

Smooth, cool and flat

To skim across the view

Watched water voles

Listened to the trees

Trailed fingers in the shallows

Spangled light

And dappled shade

I played between the shadows

Then waded in

Toes to shins

Skirt tucked into underwear

To sit upon

A mossy rock

To contemplate and stare

Shoals of fish

And tangleweed

Swam with the swollen current

Happy times

Amid untold horrors

Stories too abhorrent

A week away

Within the lakes

For the sake of my mother

Who needed rest

A different nest

On the loosing of her father

The rain poured down

All night and day

For six of the seven

Raining down

On all of us

Sadness in the heavens

Then upon

The seventh day

Just as the Bible told

The Sun came out

Clouds moved away

And we lay in pools of gold