Postcards on Ice
Jim Tilley

I.               Ice Fishing

 
It’s augers we need
to drill holes in ice.
Then it’s only a question
of what we’ll catch
other than trout,
perch, or pickerel.
About time for
something else—
better them, than us.

II.               Freedom

 
The Golden leaves his master
to tend to ice fishing,
trots off to shore,
his bright blue unleashed leash
between his teeth,
shaking it, shaking it
back and forth
into a bayberry bush,
free at last.

III.               Geography

 
Two days of rain and warmth
turned the parking lot at the park
into a work of art:
on the pavement, isolated mountains
of ice and snow, islands
in an archipelago.