Russell Rowland

Aura
 
Only once did I discover a rainbow haloing
the lower waterfall:
unplanned conjunction of sunlight and me.
 
Still, an aura of similar color
sometimes develops in a window at home;
 
or, if I stand up too quickly, inside my head.
 
Pastor thinks such an aura contains
all my memories of good times, now gone.
 
The shaman at the blade-sharpening shop
says it comes to show me
by what death I will justify the life I lived.
 
I believe it may be a promise:
all my days I’ve been haunted by promises.
 
I will approach the waterfall
again one day: just try to see it for what it is.
 

Russell Rowland writes from New Hampshire.  Recent work appears in Red Eft Review, Wilderness House, Bookends Review, and The Windhover. His latest poetry book, Magnificat, is available from Encircle Publications. He is a trail maintainer for the Lakes Region (NH) Conservation Trust.