Clade Song 6

Panes of Rain

As a child, one day, through a window screen,
I saw that I saw the world as a mosaic.

Today, through a screen wet with rain
I see I see a crane fishing in shallow water.
Stark white against deep green,
the straightened neck one square wide.

I feel I feel the curve of the surface
of the tiles, the colors in each
rich with variation and subtlety
more than I can see.

All is layered.
Glaze on clay, clay on cement, cement on board:
all thoughts as screen between me and

the crane,
the rain,
the child.

Karina Lutz is a writer, editor, teacher, and lifelong activist. She helped secure passage of sustainable energy legislation, thwart a proposed megaport, and restore wetlands in her home watershed of Narragansett Bay, RI. In 2013, she received honorable mention from Homebound Publications Poetry Prize for her manuscript, Preliminary Visions. Her poems have been published by Tulane Review, Blueline, Written River, The Wayfarer, Poecology, Twisted Vine, Bleeding Lion, Buddhist Poetry Review, Green Living Journal, PDXX Collective, S/tick, Narrative Northeast, and The Transnational. She has performed her epic peace poem, "Encircling Earth" at dozens of venues in New England.