Turtles and Snakes

pages flapped and fluttered in the breeze
and all seemed to know clearer than I
but only George declared in a loud cry
and another down beneath the tracks climbed
to where it lay on a concrete ledge
against the trestle’s round columns
while others looked behind and ahead
or listened for a train coming
though none did in the time it took
for the limp rag
to be passed up between ties
toward hearts beating and anxious eyes
there behind mounds of overgrown sand traps
and reedy ponds
said to be full of golf balls
but I guessed mostly just turtles and snakes