Empty Nest by the River

by Kirsten Pendreigh

Photography: ‘Fraser in Amber’ by Janet Kvammen

I wish I had a child here to show me
how to see this forest stream.
We could lift up rocks, search for bugs
and make leaf rafts to race.
We could measure the deepest parts of the pools
(where the fish hid) by tracking wet marks on sticks
then dip our heads and shake them dry, like dogs.
But it’s just me, and this dog
knee deep is as far as he’ll go.
My children have grown, moved away.
I baptise my head. Stop to watch a strider
walk across the water like it’s nothing.

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Kirsten Pendreigh’s poems appear in Arc Poetry, Prairie Fire, subTerrain, CV2, Juniper Poetry, Sustenance Anthology (Anvil Press) and Another Dysfunctional Cancer Poem Anthology (Mansfield Press). She's a two-time winner of Whistler's Poet's Pause competition and won the 2018 Pandora’s Collective Poetry Contest. She’s on Twitter @kpiependreigh