Camargue

by Simon Henderson

The reed-standing straight
calmness
of Camargue morning
thrust through
the giant mirror
bouche de Rhone
of water vastness

Aquatic teeming plain
Black bulls
brought by the Greeks
with hooves adapted
to the marshy mire

White, long maned horses
speckle the horizon
mounted by gypsy
swamp cowboys
herding black bulls
with trident tipped lances
like sons of Neptune

Between the me
and them
men and birds
are fishing
one from flat-bottomed boats,
the other
from long, stilted legs

Thrusting beaks,
casting nets
into the water market
making silhouttes
on inverted dream sky
water-blue unreal

Underneath the tourquoise mirror
of the morning sky,
hear the color of flamingo
in their fleets of flaming rose;
in the morning
in the evening
through the mirror,
there they go

6/1973, Sts. Maries de la Mer, France