Iowa Assessments Practice Test 7

Heron, Early

¹Before the town has found its keys,

²before the first bus coughs awake,

³the heron stands in the shallows

⁴like a question no one asked aloud.

⁵It does not hurry. It has learned

⁶the pond will keep its promises

⁷to anyone who waits: a silver flick,

⁸a ripple folding back on itself.

⁹I am late, as always, running

¹⁰with my backpack thumping like a second heart,

¹¹and I would stop—I tell myself

¹²I would stop—if there were time.

¹³But the heron has all the time

¹⁴the morning holds, and spends it

¹⁵the way my grandmother spent coins,

¹⁶one careful piece at a time.

¹⁷Tomorrow I will leave five minutes early.

¹⁸Tomorrow I will stand at the rail

¹⁹and learn what stillness costs,

²⁰and what it buys.