fireweed
my train veers
across the points

school's out
the riverbank flush
with tansy florets

at the point
where the river
turns tidal
the undercurrents
slowly surface

- Eucalypt

English Frogs

Crouched at the pond’s edge,
my younger son finds shade from the eighty-eight

degrees sun-trap and points out each
of the frog-heads poking up through the duckweed

and asks, Why do frogs stay still for so long?
On an English day like this,

It can only be because they’re philosophical,
wise or just plain can’t be bothered.