Is that what she actually said,
frog shrouded? Poetic for sure
but what is the necessary
specificity—medium-sized
leopard frogs, or large bullfrogs,
maybe tiny gray tree frogs,
a blocade crawling upwards with
hexagonal mucous-celled toes,
like small wind-up toys?

My hearing, well at three score and ten,
things do go awry. I’m sure of what
she said, but her mic echoed, and her
voice at eighty-two, is soft. Later, I laughed,
of course, she said “fog shrouded.”

Gary Grossman’s writing appears in 48 literary reviews. Gary’s poetry books Lyrical Years (2023, Kelsay), What I Meant to Say Was… (2023, Impspired Press), and graphic memoir My Life in Fish—One Scientist’s Journey…(2023, Impspired) all may be purchased from Amazon.