The Mole Crab
Bandon beach. An elderly woman caged in a pink coat pokes exposed soft shells and mechanical innards. She calls out to ask what it all is. We stand around hypothesizing: prehistoric crab? Armored shrimp? Feathery hems confuses us all. She asks us to find out, tell her. Her husband rolls his eyes. The internet says: mole crab. They live in the frothy surf, flying little filament flags to catch the drifting winds of plankton. We see the woman on the way back. Despite deafness, we inform her. A few waves of gratitude and she wanders off with husband to bury herself back into our unknowing. Route 22 Memorial On Route 22 to Bend we pass Mill City and the blasted heaths of last summer’s fires, so bad they closed Portland, millions muffled. The road passes through blackened brigades of Santiam Forest trees and piles of the fallen, heaped up in snow stained charnel clearances. In vacated lots the rubble of homes linger, indiscriminately chosen by the concentration, a few ironic fireplaces and chimneys still standing. Skeletal cars lay scattered like shells. Trailers have multiplied. Blink and you might think tourists. A few pristine houses escaped the fist of the fire. The burnt skin of the hills with charcoaled trees like my grandfather whose hair fell out during World War Two’s shock and North African heat. The Santiam river slips past guiltily. We climb towards the Willamette National Forest, soothing rain becoming concerning snow. At Detroit Lake, we find a European battlefield, blackened stumps memorialising the mud. The dead cleared to create a buffer zone. On one side of Detroit, a motel sign hangs by the stony scar of itself. On the other side the grocery store is still surviving. More rubble piles, more sudden trailer living and lonely fireplaces. Leaving we smell woodsmoke and see smoldering signals that in the earth not all is forgotten, people trying to live and not worry about next summer. Published in Sparks of Calliope, April 2022.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Poetry Biography:I have had over 70 poems published in the following worldwide magazines and literary journals: A Handful of Stones, Acta Victoriana (Canada), All the Sins (UK), The Amethyst Review (USA), Amsterdam Quarterly (NL) The Blue Nib (Ireland), Bolts of Silk, Borderless Journal, The Brasilia Review (Brazil), Bushfire Literature & Arts Review (US), Cadenza, Cake Magazine, Carillon, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (Hong Kong), DASH (USA), Clackamas Literary Review (USA), Cooch Behar Anthology, Dawntreader, Dreamcatcher, The Dillydoun Review, Earth Love, The Ear (US), Eastlit (East Asia), Erbacce, Envoi, Finger Dance Festival, Ginosko, Gloom Cupboard, Hidden Channel, Inlandia Journal, IS&T (Ink, Sweat & Tears), Into the Void (Canada), The Journal, The Lakeview Journal (India), Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Lunch Ticket (USA) The New Writer, One Hand Clapping, Orbis, Oregon English Journal (USA), The Passage Between, Prole, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Sonic Boom (India), Third Wednesday (USA), Of Nepalese Clay (Nepal), New Contrast (South Africa), One Hand Clapping, Opportunity Publishing, The Oregon English Journal (USA) Origami Poems Project (USA), The Paddock Review (USA), Panoplyzine (USA), Paper Swan Press, The Passage Between, The Peacock Journal (USA), Pens on Fire, Poetry Salzburg (Austria), Potomac Review, (USA) Prole, Pulsar Poetry, Rear View Poetry, Queen Mob's Teahouse, Qutub Minar Review (India), Red Ink, Shiela-Na-Gig (USA), South Bank Poetry Magazine, Stand, Waterford Teachers Centre, (Ireland) We Are a Website New Literary Journal (Singapore), Weber - The Contemporary West Review (USA), Windfall (USA), Writing Magazine, Words for the Wild and Verbal Art (India). Archives
March 2024
|