New poems from Christa Fairbrother
After
Words sourced from “Flood Tide,” chapter one of Under the Sea Wind by Rachel Carson
Morning broke over the dunes
dark one minute, then bright buff.
The sea oats gleamed,
trembled, and returned to green.
The gulls, gray splotches
against the spreading light,
soared, wheeled white, and dove.
Barking, clanging in pursuit
of bills lifting, filled with fish.
The waves throbbed up the beach
buried sand crabs poked
holes, pocked the receding wet.
The wrack swirling with fleas
pursued your silent feet
hauling your limp heart
to the blue, ever blue sea
that cares nothing for mourning.
Real Estate Flyers
Words sourced from “Patterns of Shore Life,” chapter two of The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson
One doesn’t have to choose
Cape Hatteras over Cape Canaveral.
Each narrow strip of land swung out,
geologically determined to hold
against the sea’s rising sweep,
king tide floods every fortnight.
We have our feet.
We pocket up our homes,
move higher, higher still,
assume that the barnacles, oysters,
when their experience is exceeded,
scrape off their basal stalks,
become free. As if belief
is enough to keep one
anchored in the world.
Pool Party
Flopped face up on a pool float I track patterns
in the sky, dragonflies, birds, airplanes weave—
thin contrails, shuttles cocked
dash over, under bolt, over rush, dive under
until a gust tangles the threads,
dropped, dangling like conversations.
In a room full of strangers everyone talks,
no one listens—all warp, warp, no weft.
A block of bell towers peeling—me, me, me,
no heft, the heavy work of listening.
Another gust and the dragonflies are tumbleweeding
like newspapers down a sidewalk, twist
fold together, origami hold, creased tight—
the fun of a party where another reads you right.
CHRISTA FAIRBROTHER, MA, is poet laureate for Gulfport, Florida.
She’s had poetry in Crannog, Epiphany, Pleiades, and Salamander,
among others, and has been nominated for a Pushcart twice. She
is a poetry editor at Phylum Press, and she loves tea and avocados.
Connect with her: www.christafairbrotherwrites.com, on IG @
christafairbrotherwrites, or BlueSky @christafairbrother.
