However Green the Context

Handspan Creek’s half choked with leaves.
Its water looks like weak tea
That’s been left outside a week.

Now and then, an old leaf floats
Away from its clump of ghosts,
And the motion fools the eye

Into thinking a turtle,
Maybe a fish, lives in it.
Do not be deceived by this.

The translucent creek, it’s true,
Is not entirely lifeless—
Tinier things live in it—

But the leaves fallen in it
That stain it are different
From what’s most alive in it,

And after all, this creek, this
Pretty bit of serpentine,
Shapes an irrigation ditch.