Pond Scums

Early Spring and the ice is thick

as microscope glass so the critters

asleep in the scum come up

to the edge of the dead leaf litter

claws grasped to flotsam some

with lungs gasping through gnashed

black teeth yearning to breathe

above the surface an earth plast

ered with bees mastered work

in moss and trees and bould

ers floating grass tips on the

water to show the young bugs home. They'll

cross the pond's cool black skin, souls

combined, they'll bring an Early Spring.

Mateo Daniel Connelly