The Stone Frog

Martin L. McAuliffe Jr.

two poems

THE STONE FROG

Always as though it at last is about to leap
(Outside this window there in the garden),
A large stone frog
On an imitation log
Squats. It looks as though it will leap
Through the long red bars carnations cage
About it. And though intellect may shrug
And though intellect may say
"It's but a stone frog
That will never leap"-whenever the casual eye
Starts outside its window
There in the garden: Immortality
Sleepless in its long bed of births
Seeming to squat like some grinning frog
On a concrete log-
Then, because the salmon breed
At the rhythmical urging of Indian knees
The heart-startled-must leap and muscles all
Leap in an unpremeditated dance
To the stone sinew and continual glance
Of a huge stone frog
On an unburnable log.