Leaf Boat

Tiny bugs on this maple leaf
are jumping, scads of them.
A hyperactive halftime marching band.
Oh, the pile-ups, the strange
(don't they get it?) conjunctions.

Now they surge starboard,
a magnet pulling them,
or has the captain just announced
a once-in-a-lifetime sight-
seeing opportunity off the bow
that none of them wants to miss.

But wait. They're running back.
Somebody must have noticed the flames
breaking out along leaflines
and pulling the alarm.

They're all stamping
like mad on the sparks,
the sodium-orange veins.

It's only going to get
madder and madder.
And then they're going down.

Copyright © 2005 Rad Smith All rights reserved
from Distant Early Warning
Tupelo Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission