We paddle backwards
cattails / fluff blowing
asking every question /
a test.
There is dark knowing in these questions /
swallows us whole.
Silver fish know and leap.
frogs hear distant darkness / stop mid-croak
dragonfly lands on my knee /
requiring nothing…
of me.
we are broken backward /
answering is
our second chance.

Cindy Cherry grew up in Northern Mexico and the Southwest. She writes poems and stories in her head, while walking a labyrinth with her two dogs. She also loves her job working with blind infants; teaching them new ways to “see.”