Cool water Once fresh and clean Reflecting the skies In azure imitation A complement to Nature In her splendour
The image fades Distorts With the spread Of an oily film And the pond Now tinted brown With algae and silt Hints of Death No longer giving Life But taking That which is As blood gone stale
Cori MacNaughton 22 August 1983.
This was one on a series of poems I wrote while working in an insurance company shortly before I left California. I used to write short poems while I was waiting on hold.
I have never read this publicly, but I did read it to my meditation group in Florida in the late 1990s. This is the first time it appears in print.