More Than a Leak - Dec. 13, 2025

it’s a hole with a long history

an ugly past of stolen water

an Agatha Christie mystery

of wet clues and no culprit

for a long time, my pond

has decanted the fish’s world

into the sand while a hose runs

nonstop to keep their dominion afloat,

over the years guilt has flowed in

an equal amount, a cringing calculation

of thousands of gallons lost, while I

searched for the gap in the getaway

and then, my God, there’s last week,

behind the waterfall’s cascade –

a tree root had knifed a hole

in the liner that I easily patched

it’s so wonderful to look out

and see a brimming pond

and tell myself -

a round hole has been squared away

and I can rest up for life’s next

challenge, working its way

through the layers of my life