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John Terpstra

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Giants

There used to be giants,
and they loved it here. They’d sit
their giant hinds in a row along the top edge
of the escarpment, and pick at the loose rock
with their hands or their feet, then throw or skip the smoothest
stones across the bay, to see who could land one
on the sandstrip, three miles away;

or they’d spring themselves off the scarp top
like you would off a low wall, and go running
all the way to the end of the sandbar,
and jump across the water to the other side,
or jump in, splashing and yelling up the ravines,
chasing each other’s echoes.

This was only a few thousand years ago, and the giants
were still excited about the glaciers,
which were just leaving; about not having to wear
their coats all the time, and what
the ice and water had done, shaping and carving
this gentle, wild landscape!
They loved it here.

I’m telling you, they absolutely loved
every living minute here,

and they regretted ever having to leave.

 

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