From the collection published in 2021, The Immediate and No Sooner.

At the Beginning of the Story

Once upon a time
it was afternoon
just past rain and she
whose waterproof toes
left tiny star marks
in the mud and curled
to clutch the gravel
washed down from the steep
bank of the creek she
stood shallow in the
coiling ripples of
iridescence that
waver and dither
into a sudden
slip through the rocks and
gone still she stands with
head raised and sharp eyes
scans the vibrating
pale white sun-hazed sky

3/12/20
each line 5 syllables