Spring Shedding Ice

On this first morning of spring, I heard the sound of the river for the first time this year.  Just up the Ottauquechee from the Middle Bridge, an open stretch, tapered at each end and wide in the middle, poured over the shallow, rocky riverbed to create that crackly, soothing murmur.

Directly below the spot from where I choose to take my pictures, a pencil thin crack coming out from under the bridge traced its crooked way from the bridge's shadow forward and then toward the right bank.  Other cracks laced the surface.  The tracks of deer follow the shore now, not the middle of the stream.  River neighbors have heard the sound of ice breaking.

The spring morning sun

mirrored by the thinning ice,

a soon-shedded skin.