edge of the pond

Rhythm of reading

certain passages aloud

alternating from a book

each of us is reading.

 

Alternating passages

shared emotions imagined

unlike intimate conversations

devoid of gossip.

 

Evening, after dinner, together

reading, sharing passages

as if touring

new city on our own.

 

Sometimes, somewhere, each

of us is tempted to substitute

words, for words in the original

to suit color and meaning we seek.

 

Are we capable only of living

our cultivated way of living?

Are we reluctant to part away

from our “imaginative comprehension”?

The hardest step is the first

curious soul in our hands

not unlike children on the edge

of the pond playing with tadpoles.