dark morning

8 a.m., Towne Lake Park in Mckinney. Dark clouds hint at afternoon rains. The great blue heron is vividly blue and gray, wading in a creek, then flying away. A cardinal has vivid red plumage like a small lamp. A red admiral butterfly passes beside thick foliage. I think of being twelve or so and seeing an uncommon roseate spoonbill at Lester, Arkansas in a kind of rain-created marsh. Another memory--the way the home behind our Gurdon home had a back yard prone to flood. I look above me at images of stars painted in a coffee shop ceiling.