Fall, 2007

Gene Berson

Risking the Guantlet of Robins

Green inch worms descend

from the canopy on a thread

to leaf litter where they

wildly throw themselves around

as if panicked for direction

yet are rooted on four rear feet

to then scrunch forward

in some bewildering quest.

After a few days -- a gossamer

of colors nick the pine needles

colors that startle you

like Van Gogh's prisoner in the painting

were he to look up, instead of just

going round and round shackled

to his orbit of gloom, look up the tower

to a few bricks near the window

that refract beams into a rainbow --

Unseen beneficence, light

awaiting the evolution of eyes.