Each day the time
It never moved
We lay belly up
On rafts of sand
Bleached driftwood logs
A dragon's eye.
We spun around
The sun on clouds
And caught the moon's
Reflective beam.
The woodland mice
Like shadows crept
Just at the edge
Of fire's light
Inching closer
As embers died.
They swung on vines
Those acrobats
Of night.
Leaping, spinning
Without a sound.
One Wisconsin
Island night!
Jim Mildren is the longtime manager of the Gogebic County Transit system in Ironwood, Michigan at the westernmost point of the Upper Peninsula. He is an avid outdoorsman, bicyclist and runner and enjoys writing about nature and the world around him. Jim traditionally reads a new poem or two at every state transit convention he attends and is considered the Poet Laureate of the Michigan Public Transit Association. He and his lovely wife Ellen reside in Ironwood and have two grown children and a grandson out-of-state who they love to visit whenever possible.