Tag: Kathryn Jordan

Two Poems by Kathryn Jordan

~ ONE ART ~ 1 Comment

Influencers

The egret lurks in the hedges near shore,
webbed feet feeling over stem and leaf,

white neck shimmying, leaning into green
crannies, hunting geckos that hide there.

Flopping across sand in my flippers, I fall
into the sea and kick, sounds of breathing

whooshing in and out as I swim through
the sea. Below a cliff, a huge turtle tilts

side to side, sunlight gilding bronze and gold
the scrapes etched on her peaceable planet

of shell. When she heads toward the open
sea, I follow, enchanted, as she leads me

on through the deep, until I stop to see
how far I am from land—where I think

I know things. I’ve no choice but to turn,
return to the beach, where I remove snorkel

and fins before diving to rinse in the water.
No longer hearing the swish of my breath,

I suddenly hear squeals and whistles that
I’m sure must be whales. Whales calling

in their world, singing unearthly songs in
a sacred language I want to learn by heart.

*

Between Worlds

I watch the solitary cormorant glide through
the white-grey water in the white-grey mist.

It’s impossible to tell one world from another
and, for once, this doesn’t feel like a problem.

When the cormorant suddenly dives below,
not a single trace remains to say an animal

was just here. A dark ribbon of cormorants
comes flying low, single file, out of the fog.

Will the lone bird surface, will it take wing,
running, flapping, on the water to catch up?

Yesterday, I found where they go, hundreds
perched, two or three on each oyster float,

lined up like long strands of barbed wire.
What guides them to find their way from

a rock in the ocean, to stand together here,
wings extended, as if to give a benediction?

What drives them back to the sea at day’s end,
pausing to bathe before heading into the night?

* 

Winner of the San Miguel de Allende Writers Conference Prize for Poetry and a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, Kathryn Jordan’s other honors include placement and finalist positions in the Atlanta Review, New Ohio Review, Steve Kowit, Muriel Craft Bailey, Connecticut Poetry, Sidney Lanier, and Patricia Dobler poetry contests. Her poems are published in The Sun, New Ohio Review, and Atlanta Review, among others. She loves to hike the trails, listening for birdsong to transcribe to poetry.

Two Poems by Kathryn Jordan

~ ONE ART ~ 4 Comments

“Invasion From Within”

One of the 600 generals is my father.
There he is, furrowed brow, staring

at the back of another general’s head.
My father likes to think about value.

He said he had a lot invested in me
once, after I dropped out of school.

When he couldn’t make a living
selling insurance, he joined the Navy.

In return for obedience, in exchange
for bombing a country, my father didn’t

have to consider the questions. Now,
he’s over-invested— his medals shine.

Who is this fatherman, first man, lost
boy who always said he never got

enough respect, who spanked me
for crying when I was a baby?

Will my father do as he’s told, will he order
military maneuvers to my dangerous city?

Will he send soldiers in polished black boots
to the street, to the little house where I live?

*

Corn Hole

As soon as I saw it, I wanted one:
gigantic skeleton, larger than life.

Moveable joints, easy to arrange
in cadavalier poses, lounging on

lawn chairs, leaning on fenceposts,
leering from holes in the ground.

But I didn’t invest in a mannequin.
A year later and there’s a skeleton

with a cigar on every porch swing,
some houses with even five or six

out on the lawn playing corn hole.
And if this little town’s population

boom is any indication, and I think
it is, there must be literally hundreds

of thousands of white skeletons in
America, taking our jobs, applying

for federal assistance, messing up
our big, beautiful American project!

Make no mistake, this is all thanks
to some oil baron with an agenda

for boosting the business while
making Halloween great again—

which it never was, in my opinion.
I mean, isn’t Halloween for kids?

*

Winner of the San Miguel de Allende Writers Conference Prize for Poetry and a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet, Kathryn Jordan’s other honors include placement and finalist positions in the Atlanta Review, New Ohio Review, Steve Kowit, Muriel Craft Bailey, Connecticut Poetry, Sidney Lanier, and Patricia Dobler poetry contests. Her poems are published in The Sun, New Ohio Review, and Atlanta Review, among others. She loves to hike the trails, listening for birdsong to transcribe to poetry.