Annette Marie Hyder

Sugarcane runs long fingers
through the sky's curly clouds.
Gators spank the river bank
with disciplinary tails.
Mosquitoes drape the shoreline
like Spanish Moss hanging on the trees.
The sky is a bleached denim blue
so soft
I decide to wear just that —
like a favorite old frayed shirt —
as I drift in my canoe.


Storytelling is editing on the fly

You can't include everything in a snapshot. There were herons in that picture and there was a shy and bashful breeze. There were tortoises, red-tailed hawks and a rattlesnake in a tree. I left them out but couldn't resist giving just a peek.