lions park is the area around 12-acre seepage lake lions park pond. used to swim here when i was a kid, and used to spend a lot of time on these sand bluffs across from the beach as a teen. the area to the north of this site is the neighborhood i grew up in, perched on the edge of the outwash fan from the last glaciation that stopped on the other side of town between janesville and milton. the area between the house i grew up in and the pond is made up of gullies and hills between the houses that i didn’t realize are probably millennia-old sand dunes covered over with soil and now roads and mid-century houses. all angling down to the rock river valley and spring brook, which empties into the rock not a half-mile from this spot.

a wonderful twilight visit. lots of waterfoul, cool breeze, and a muskrat who paddled along the bank, watched my dad and me for a moment, then dipped under the surface and swam out of range. pond just icing over. spirit place.

a.

nightshade berries red

as rubies

ducks fly over ice

b.

sand-drowned frilled rosettes

pushing up

goose-call, coming night

c.

migration wheeling

plowing ice

in muskrat bower

d.

willows on the lawn

yellowing now

across lions pond