Steep Learning Curve

Milton Jordan

June 2, 2024

Freshly certified and newly appointed,

our residential administrator, 

who admittedly had limited  

history with Central Texas, determined

soon after her October arrival

to dig a pond in a weedy space 

just beyond two rows of visitor parking 

fronting our senior living west entrance.

An unusually wet winter and early spring

prompted her to install a twirling fountain

mid-water, with multi-colored lighting

attracting much attention and providing

new front photos for the resident

directory and corporate sales brochures.

Rainfall slowed late April and by July’s end

summer had returned dry and dusty

steadily dropping the water level

below the twirling fountain’s intake valve,

exposing its misshapen concrete base

and a few September sludge puddles.  

November’s limited recovery held

through February but summer’s drought

returned early, left the pond near dry

by mid-May and a pond-bottom covering 

the contractors guaranteed to maintain 

adequate water levels proved by August

their Central Texas experience

as shallow as our administrator’s.

Milton Jordan lives with Anne in Georgetown, Texas. He co-edited the first Texas Poetry Assignment anthology, Lone Star Poetry, Kallisto Gaia Press, 2022.