We present this work in honor of the poet’s 90th birthday.

The Striders
And search
For certain thin-
Stemmed, bubble-eyed water bugs.
See them perch
On dry capillary legs
Weightless
On the ripple skin
Of a stream
Not only prophets
Walk in water.
The bug sits
On a landslide of lights
And drowns eye
Deep Into its tiny strip
Of sky.