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Buckskin, Indiana, a poem by Roger Pfingston

Buckskin, Indiana
by Roger Pfingston

Back home after walking the creek,
he sits with toast
and a mug of coffee,
savoring
              a blue
                         heron
morning:  how it
lifted at his approach,
leading him on,
indulging his presence with a slow wing spread,

the short
repeated flights
to the water’s edge,

until he turned back,
the heron knowing more than he could follow,

the window now, framing the steady gaze,
the fenced-in beauty of horses.


Bio: A retired teacher of English and photography, Roger Pfingston is the recipient of a
Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and two PEN
Syndicated Fiction Awards. He has poems in recent issues of Poet Lore, Spoon River
Poetry Review, Innisfree Poetry Journal, and U.S. 1 Worksheets. New poems are scheduled to
appear in Poetry East and Hamilton Stone Review. His chapbook, A Day Marked for Telling, is
available from Finishing Line Press.