PATERNOSTER LAKES.................................................................................................................................RYAN HALLIGAN

Paternoster Lakes

looking down on the Grinnell Valley, Glacier National Park, Montana

Poem by Ryan Halligan

Five blue pools of water in the mountains sewn together by strings of icy streams— half-decade of the rosary, or full if each bead counts twice. Dammed by moraines dropped by moving masses

of ice, each could be its own mystery. Above the green and red strips of sediment lies a lonely frozen tarn that showers the four beads below. Snow drifts block its path from unsure footfalls.

But glacier lilies finish the prayer, trail receding ice, lift the spring up slopes with their golden crowns, delicate heads bowed until dormancy, when they'll store the spark in bulbs.

Ryan is a writer living and working in the Philadelphia area. He holds an MA in Writing Studies from Saint Joseph’s University and writes poetry and creative non-fiction.