Walking stick

The walking stick picks its way upside down along the underside of the meadow’s flowering surface — goldenrod, asters, snakeroot — a stem among stems, stalking just the right leaf. When it reaches a gap in the canopy, it stops to sway — a rhythmic rocking. Then one spined twig reaches for the nearest likely toehold & the rest of it follows, stretched like the shadow of a tree in winter across the glaring moment of the sky.