Poems by Anne Graue
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The Search for Gold in Costa Rica
by Anne Graue
From Canary Fall 2023
Anne lives in the Lower Hudson Watershed in New York, which makes up about 40 percent of the larger Hudson/Mohawk River Basin. The area is dotted with small lakes and is not far from the Croton Reservoir.
Under mist and compost
far below the canopy,
wet undergrowth your shelter—
flash flicker—glistering gold—
a nanosecond—a golden
toad—you drink
through your skin the mists
once heavy, laden, hovering
over the warming earth
El Niño threatening
in the new world—
your world of orchids
hanging roots down trees
bromeliads where you lay
your eggs in cisterns
of water collected from clouds
surrounding the rich coast
where you were found
stellar in 1964
seen last in 1989
at Monteverde
where you had lived
on your estate molten
lava bursting rain
forests howler monkeys
sloths and poison-dart frogs
toucans and the fungus
that the climate brought
with it that hurt worse
than Columbus who left
you well enough alone.
© Anne Graue