by Jane H. Fitzgerald
The sun beats down in such
a way, heats our hair, fills our ears with bright air as we follow the sea line on another Get Lost Walk. We find a dead donkey early on enough it becomes our summer refrain – heehawing Dead Donkey! Dead Donkey! Aqua socks slip from time to time on jagged rocks. From time to time, I fold the flyweight olive-eating three-year old into my arms. No more dangerous, really, than marble stairs tumbled down past bedtime to the thunder of Daddy screaming at Granddad.
The sun beating down in such a way the day of hot hair. —Engulfed—stilled in our sand tracks. A stand – a cove – a universe of butterflies – yes, fairy tale of wings. Play of mirrors otherwise how could it even be possible the children panted their breath full whispers. A-flutter on our shoulders, a-flit across our flushed faces. On this Hellenic strand, had the gods begot this multitude as they transformed our eyelashes, as they grew into warm bouquets for our hands?
AKaiser, PhD, is a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet of “glint” (Milk & Cake Press) and an NEA-awarded translator of Catalan, French & Spanish. Poems, translations and photos found in Allium, Amsterdam Quarterly, Harvard Review, Ginosko, POETRY, Poetry International, Pen + Brush’s In Print, World Literature Today. Poems have won the Women’s National Book Association Prize, placed as finalist in Poetry International and Rialto Nature & Place prizes, and named Honorable Mention in Comstock’s Review Poetry Prize, chosen by Shonda Buchanan, Vievee Francis, Pascale Petit, and Patricia Smith, respectively. Unnameable, AK’s translations of Catalan poet Anna Gual’s work, out with Zephyr Press fall 2025. https://akaiser.org.
Jane H. Fitzgerald is a former history teacher, whose love of words and color have led her to a different path. She writes poems and stories, especially about human emotions and nature, which are often illustrated with her photographs and collages. Jane’s four books of poetry, including, Notes From the Bay, may be found on Amazon. She has been published in online and print journals including; Feral, Still Point Arts Quarterly, Bright Flash Literary Review, Isele Quarterly Magazine, Coin-Operated Press, and more. Jane lives in Florida, U.S.A. https://janespoetry.blog/ http://Amazon.com/author/janefitzgeraldpoetry