Hula Painted Frog

‘I saw something jump that didn’t look familiar…’

- Yoram Malka, ranger, Hula Nature Reserve, Northern Israel, 2011

There were thousands of their kind,

they were everywhere, we could see them

from our vantages and watchpoints

off on their little journeys, there were

millions of the things.

We could see them on the edges

of our water-lands, we could see them

clustering in numbers

in all their normal habitats, we could

sometimes see them feeding.

Then one day where were they.

One afternoon where were they.

Now we were watching nothing,

there was noise instead of water, there were

sands instead of them.

Years after, one came walking,

great goggle eyes and paper flapping,

we were all here waiting.

I was the one we chose, to rise

and show myself to him,

for behind his goggles tiny eyes

were looking, they were streaming,

I hopped on his desert palm.

You are not gone away, we softly

wept in our two tongues.

Glyn Maxwell