Spring Rain at Big Stone Point
Spring Rain at Big Stone Point
From my office window
I watch the wind whipped waves
of Big Stone Lake.
Droning lake-side life
reaches a crescendo,
then drifts softly back
into a mostly inaudible rumble.
Next, as if playing their parts
in a grand symphony,
the booming splash
and gurgle of surf
resumes its never ending
tidal war of water
versus lake shore.
Reasserting
its auditory dominance,
Big Stone Lake pummels
the milky shroud
of small stones
which skirt
the great gray and tan boulders
that line the coast
of Big Stone Point.
Like a blueberry crème pie
with most of the meringue
licked off,
the foamy waves
of Big Stone Lake
buck and skip in the rising wind.
Roiling like the contents
of a boiling cauldron,
the lake seethes,
chaotically hurling murky brown
white-caps and inky blue waves
According to the vagaries of the wind.
Beneath a green-leafed
deciduous backdrop
the waters wait.
Long charcoal puffball clouds
float majestically
above lake and forest.
Like dervish vapor elephants
they spin and dance a ponderous ballet
against a dusky sunless afternoon sky.
Gale force winds whistle
through a row of Blue Spruce
sending forth a fresh breeze,
laden with piney drafts
that overpower the faint,
yet cloying scent of fish.
Chains rattle
a scratchy high pitched clang
as they bounce along
the boom and mast
of the beached cherry red catamaran.
Small tan and camo
fishing boats clunk
against their moorings.
With each pitch and yaw
they surf the waves
like Hawaiian hula dancers.
Jagged white streaks suddenly lace
the lime and darkly lavender sky.
Protracted seconds later comes
the reverberating peal of thunder.
Soon the patter of rain,
like a thousand
quietly drumming fingers,
taps a rhythmic reveille
that skitters like marching spiders
along roof tiles and window panes.
For a moment there is a hush
and then the rains become
a torrent of kettle drums,
clashing symbols,
tension bars,
pulsating maracas
and a bull fiddle moaning of wind
that rattles the windows
with watery claws.
(May 31st, 2010), Wayne T. O’Conner
Vocabulary list:
Roiling (rapid movement of water that stirs up sediment)
Vagaries (erratic unpredictable manifestation, plural form)
Deciduous (trees that shed leaves seasonally)
Dervish (one that dances with wild abandonment)
Ponderous (unwieldy or clumsy because of weight and size)
Cloying (excessive or irritating scent)
Catamaran ( twin hulled sail boat)
Camo (short for camouflage)
Yaw (nautical term for side to side movement)
Protracted (delayed or deferred)
Reveille ( a bugle call, signal)
Skitter (move quickly and lightly)
Tension bars (segment of music in a movie used to increase viewers anxiety)
Maracas (percussion instrument often made from gourds)
