Rockfowl

With first blush of dawn

Pink pleated petals open

Paper blooms unfold.

Fireflies at dusk

Dotted lines connecting trees

Morse code drawn with light.

In sky and on lake

Above and below mountain

Broken clouds doubled.

Half hidden by leaves

River traces silky thread

Through evening forest.

Day and night collide

Bright and dark clouds side by side

Devoured by ridge.

Sunrays dance on peaks

Beaming through chasms in clouds

Pale ladders to earth.

Beneath sunlit trees

Water plummets onto rocks

Into shaded tarn.

Field turns to forest

Rounded canopy of trees

Shaped like far summits.

Start and end of days

Blue Ridge mountains soft with haze

Cool against warm sky.

Twisting through shadows

Edged by rich emerald leaves

Water curls like smoke.