Even While Still

by

Meg Muthupandiyan

Clinging to the swinging storm door,
the tiny frog extends two sticky toes
upward and stares outward
beyond death and sanctification
like a yearning Christ,
that three-chambered heart beating
against his harped collarbone
with a rhythm as fragile
                    and explosive as—

 

There is no peace
for the blessed, I guess;
even while still
life’s wild hymn curries my mind
with the sight of everything—
the pale bodhran of its abdomen
keeping time with
the ten thousand damselflies
striking the tympanum
of the silvering pond
and the fallow field beyond
where two bucks stand grazing—
their muscles
shimmering like splash cymbals
beneath their skin.

Meg Muthupandiyan has spent most of her creative life musing on the land communities to which she belongs, including the Twin Ports area of Superior and Duluth. Her poetry illustrations have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including Chitro Magazine, Bramble, Two Timbers Press, Two Bookends Review, and Stone Highway Review. The founder of Poetry in the Parks (poetryintheparks.org) and the author of Forty Days in the Wilderness, Wandering, she works with artists and conservationists to create short poetry films that celebrate communally and publicly held lands. Connect with her at meganmuthupandiyan.com.