The Stone Frog

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.