Koi Pond: Persona of My Music Teacher

Like oil, suspended in droplets
The size of copper coins
Plunked by well-wishers,
The sunlight waits to be
Swept up in your childhood pail,
Dipped beneath the surface to scatter
The swarming calico scales,
Trembling the pond with their
Frantic wriggling delight.
But it is a calm,
As contained by the fern fronds
And mossy stones,
Warm as golden tabbies, whose tails
Have curled under their noses.
A breath, testing its persistence,
Ripples through the pond
Like a shudder
As a koi breaks the surface,
Fluorescent scales trailing behind
In fragments and chips of color,
Dispersed in the evening's murky water.

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Emilie Menzel, age 16
2009 Finalist
Lilburn, Georgia
Parkview High School
Teacher: Mary Lynn Huie