Along The Saint John River Poem by GORDON GILHULY

white silk in summer
trees holding both life and death -
tent caterpillars


It is a bad year for caterpillars. Actually, it is a good year for the caterpillars but a bad year for the trees. Their branches, already heavy with the promise of apples, pears, chestnuts, tangled now with the webs of silken intruders. They are bearing their own death even as they are most full of life. I think of you, your children in your arms, carrying that most beautiful of fruits, on the way to living. Already, the white web is spreading - your right breast, your ovaries. Bearing your own death even as
you are most full of life.


gossamer winding
sheets in the trees - always we
carry our own shrouds