A Loon by Andrew Older

Alone, 

a loon sang

of poetry, 

her voice caked

across a lake

dimpled by rings

of leaping fish.  

The voice 

decoupled

from the bird

and assumed a form 

among

the supple,

muddy bank, 

a solo piece

made physical 

that swam and sank 

and threaded outward through the lake. 

The threading, sounding, 

muddy melodies 

darkened the water, 

the threnody of 

a lonely loon

casting veined and blurry

shadows

on the glossy surface

of a lonely lake. 

---

Andrew Older is a legal assistant and aspiring law student residing in Washington, DC. He has been published in Flash Fiction Magazine and Freedom Fiction, has work forthcoming in Scarlet Leaf Review and (mac)ro(mic), and holds a BA in English from Cornell University.