janesville

this small wood surrounding a stretch of spring brook (a tributary stream of the rock river that flows thru janesville, wi) is not large, but dense enough to feel fairly remote when in the interior during late spring to fall. this was my usual haunt during late middle school thru high school, where we came to read and write and walk, sit and wonder. i thought it was part of palmer park across the road until looking it up for this—apparently this section across from palmer drive is not part of the park and doesn’t have a name on any map i can find. ???!!!

a brilliant evening walk w/ my dad, the air heavy with stream-scent and dame’s rocket, which has taken over a good portion of the understory. swaying and scenting. first id’s of chain speedwell, hackberry, bedstraw, bur reed sedge, balsam ragwort, and lady fern! not bad for a place i used to spend so much time. i wonder who lived here back then?

dames line the hollow

and wrensong

echoes in decades

westering sunlight

we’re awash

in a scented sea

the air dense with life

at evening

i’ve known these contours

lady fern to end.

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.

nightshade berries red

as rubies

ducks fly over ice