Bryan Cook

Thaw

Social networking makes distancing more tolerable, but an aching back and tired eyes need a change from leather chair and computer screen. A walk by the river helps. Candle ice tinkles through the snow-melt mist. Dark water swamps the floodplain, an iridescent sheen of tannic tea. Flocks of mallards rest one-legged on thinning ice while Canada geese skid to open water. Tree buds swell. I watch as chickadees scavenge seed from the snow-crust beneath an empty feeder, ignoring a red-tail hawk perched on an abandoned fence post. 

vernal pool—
a string of pearls,
in each a song

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About the Author

Bryan Cook is an alumnus of Sheffield and McGill Universities and retired from directing Canada’s energy science and technology. He now pursues interests in Canadian history, genealogy and genetics, fishing, gardening, poetry, and fine woodworking. Bryan is mentored through Ottawa’s TREE Reading Series and the KaDo Haiku and Tanka Society. He won the 2019 Genjuan Haibun international competition.