Flathead Lake, October
The eagle floats and glides,
circling the burnished aspen,
then takes the high pines
with a flash of underwing.
As surely as the eagle sails
toward the bay’s open curve,
as surely as he swoops and seizes
the struggling fish, pulling
it from an osprey’s beak;
so too, autumn descends,
to steal the glistening
summer from our open hands.
Poem copyright ©2007 by Geraldine Connolly, from her most recent book of poems, Hand of the Wind, Iris Press, 2009. Reprinted by permission of Geraldine Connolly and the publisher.