Sketching a Waterfall
My friend and I stroll
through Shinzen Gardens,
as late October finally paints
Japanese maple leaves
with hints of red and gold.
Sun on our backs,
we sit on the wooden bridge,
drawing rocks, steady and solid
as water tries to erode them.
I press my pen down the page
in firm, bold strokes,
shading the water too dark.
Why can’t I capture sun sparkles
falling down the rocks?
My friend gently glides her pen,
outlines what should be foam,
keeping it light,
filling in just the rocks.
Little do I imagine this very year,
this friend will be my rock
in my own dark torrents
of job loss and health scares.
She’ll lead me to see this same light,
to laugh, to feel like floating,
like the two dragonflies
I add to my picture.
Jennifer Fenn has been writing poetry since high school. She is a junior staff accountant at a credit union by day and a poet by night. Her poems are published in eighteen journals, including Song of the San Joaquin, Brevities, The Orchards, Mermaids Monthly, and Time of Singing. She has self-published two chapbooks, Blessings, and Song of the Katabatic Wind, as church fundraisers. Jennifer is the winner of California Federation of Chaparral Poet’s 2021 Roadrunner Award.
My friend and I stroll
through Shinzen Gardens,
as late October finally paints
Japanese maple leaves
with hints of red and gold.
Sun on our backs,
we sit on the wooden bridge,
drawing rocks, steady and solid
as water tries to erode them.
I press my pen down the page
in firm, bold strokes,
shading the water too dark.
Why can’t I capture sun sparkles
falling down the rocks?
My friend gently glides her pen,
outlines what should be foam,
keeping it light,
filling in just the rocks.
Little do I imagine this very year,
this friend will be my rock
in my own dark torrents
of job loss and health scares.
She’ll lead me to see this same light,
to laugh, to feel like floating,
like the two dragonflies
I add to my picture.
Jennifer Fenn has been writing poetry since high school. She is a junior staff accountant at a credit union by day and a poet by night. Her poems are published in eighteen journals, including Song of the San Joaquin, Brevities, The Orchards, Mermaids Monthly, and Time of Singing. She has self-published two chapbooks, Blessings, and Song of the Katabatic Wind, as church fundraisers. Jennifer is the winner of California Federation of Chaparral Poet’s 2021 Roadrunner Award.