Jay Brecker

let’s employ a color      say: yellow 

another strategy: add fruit      say: pomegranates

(which, though you might not know, can be yellow)

& we DEAR READER can agree:

this poem’s pomegranates will be      so

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yellow      & in time      a third strategy:

choose one animal: a moose      name it

BISHOP      that would be fun     because it is

our moose      & while we’re still strategizing

our approach is: BISHOP forages & is unlikely

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to fish      no rather our BISHOP is likely

to come upon the pomegranates some greenery—

sprays of SWEET WILLIAM: tiny blue flowers of gaslight

potency      & BISHOP      our moose      composes

a meal      we linger on this image: a moose

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without a brush      making a picture      then 

with one shake of its head opens its mouth

finishes each yellow pomegranate &

the oh so blue SWEET WILLIAM in a bite     then turns

its back      moves up-trail in a moose amble

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which needs a pre-amble to get underway

in search of something      we need to choose

a color      call it water: a stream: mountain clear      the hue

of emptiness: mirroring the color: sky

the color: tree      the color: leaf      the stream  

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seen through reveals its sands its small rocks

its bottom      at the mercy of that      our moose

buffaloes its way through shrubs to the shallows

puts a long leg down      head pointed to the streambed

antlers spread apart like oaks’ limbs reflected

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on the surface with all its weight tipped forward

its tongue touches the water      then dips in      once      twice  

then with a gentle push of its hind legs leaps the stream

& here we stand      watch the shrubbery close

the grief of BISHOP’s disappearance lasts

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only a moment      our solace: remember its largeness

as it moves across the page      finding pomegranates

not caring they are yellow      never looking for fish

simply for food      the blues of SWEET WILLIAM & a stream

hidden absorbed in all the color that surrounds it