Evening Stroll
By Richard Dinges Jr.
To live without guilt
is to swim through water
and not get wet.
Shadows along pond’s
shore form spoken
words early in evening.
Sun’s glare dims
beneath earth’s slumped
should. Wisdom rises
in mists above still
water. I dare not wade
into its chilled truth.
I wander my old
path toward home
before darkness speaks
louder in shrill shouts,
before moon rises
with its cool calm grin.

Richard Dinges, Jr. lives and works by a pond among trees and grassland, along with his wife, two dogs, three cats, and eight chickens. Alembic, Writer’s Block, Rockford Review, Ibbetson Street, and Nebo most recently accepted his poems for their publications.