Community Wood, Evening
Let loose from his lead, the elegant dog,
though it is late and leaves murmur cautious
forest words in the compact modern wood,
speed-changing green to gold to winter black
as we look down from the path and traffic
pelts by, making thrumming beats on the bypass
concrete bridge with its dull metal capsules
(in each one a driver dreams or sings), the throng
of trees not a cage or frame but a broad
boxy instrument with strings, grey, silver,
lime, and he, zigzagging there, the tune –
as a valiant acrobat turns and turns
on the high trapeze, in the spotlight glare,
detailed, against the mighty weighted red
vague drapery of the great circus tent,
and spectators in shadows ooh and clap,
as air finds a way among broken leaves, makes
room for itself in humus and aerates seeds,
freely, in bounds succinct, decorous, swift,
as everything breathes, he leaps and he leaps.