The View from Above: Monhegan House, 7 A.M.

 
Into the small frame, modest landscape
of yellow garden hose,
overturned red barrow,
the settled gray of shingled houses,
early lettuce bedded out,
lilacs at crescendo,  
here she comes, trotting at a pony’s pace,
a young girl in a striped knit cap,
pom-pom bobbing on a string,
not sure where it’s going
but, like a horseman on a runaway,
gamely holding on.
Look again and she is out of view,
too quick for a pencil sketch,
so quick even these few lines
can barely pin her to the page.

 Marjorie Mir

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