Ashley Reservoir Poem by Peggy Dreger

She started from the parking lot and thought about
The walk that would have bee.
Inearly spring, passing the swampy bog, one of them might have said,
"any night now we'll be hearing those baby frogs"
And the other one might have saia, "You mean peepers."
Further on the reservoir stretched before them and one of them might have said, "Can you spot the bkg guy? " as they searched for the heron whoe fished in the murky shallows.
If it was early summer, one of them might have said, "Watch your feet, the geese are back."

and the other might have said, "But aren't the little ones adorable/"
If it was early fall, they might have met the mushroom girls: sturdy Russian women with plastic bags full of treasured delicacies.
Yes, they knew which ones to pick.
No, they never made a mistake.
soup, they said, "with a beefbone and barley.|
From the indigo flags of spring to the butterdups and daisies of summer to the tiny white and purple asters of fall, one of them
Might have made a bouquet to take home
And watch it wither in a day.
In December the coats had to be heavier,
Andone day, icy snowflakes stung their faces
and made the ground slick beneath their feet.
And one of them needed the other one's hand
As the trudged homr to watch the news
with cheese and crackers.

As she let herself into her quiet house
She had to remind herself again
that he had known, really known
How much she loved him.