By Generoso Opulencia

(This poem won the second prize in the 1999 Home Life Poetry Contest.)

A heron perched
above emerging fog
this faded cerulean bundle

arrests
in a wink
the heart

a world of dew on granite steps,
below tiered pubescent slopes
sweeping upon
the molding cross and the fish-eyed
crucified

that stares at windows
beyond smell of pine needles
and crumbled twigs,
bringing the chill
from high places.