Beside a stand of reeds, I stand
on the shore of the Niagara,
dawn shedding its dim light
through morning fog.
On a rock amid those cattails,
a black-crowned night heron
turns its red eye towards me,
and the bird’s shape transforms
until I’m faced by a maiden
in a simple gown of gray and white
that shifts like the wings
of the bird that first greeted me.
Lelawala, Maid of the Mist, speaks.
Long was I troubled by the return
of the serpent that sought to poison
my people through these waters.
Only by the will of the Thunder God
was it defeated, its great body
forming the rim of the mighty falls.
But your serpent is not mine. It is industry.
While your neighbors to the north
have long sought to maintain their shore
as a parkway, it took long decades
for your people to recognize the toll
imposed by industry. The renewed state
of that shore must be a reminder
to never again let that serpent raise its head.
I realize that the fog has thinned
in the morning light, and once again
I stare into the eyes of that heron,
which turns from me to take flight.
I wake and I’m left with a fading memory,
an early morning mist that dissipates
in a warm October sunrise as the air loses
its grasp on the river, lets it slip back
into its already cooling depths,
that air now filled with sunlight.
Source: Ken Gierke, 2026
A Maid in the Mist was entered into the Niagara Falls Poetry Project’s 25th Anniversary Poetry Contest.
Ken Gierke was born and raised in Western New York and, since moving to Missouri in 2012, has missed Niagara Falls the most. He was twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has been featured online and in numerous print anthologies. His four poetry collections from Spartan Press, Glass Awash (1922), Heron Spirit (2024), Random Riffs (2025), and The Long Haul (2026), are available on Amazon. More of his poetry can be found at https://rivrvlogr.com/.