~ Delta Poetry Review ~

Karen Luke Jackson

Red Tide

Not the usual cleanup

crew, road side, prancing round

an armadillo’s ripped leather coat

or plunging slick red heads

into the carcass of a deer.

This janitorial squad thrusts

curved beaks into flattened jellyfish,

swallows hunks of rotting mullet. Marble

eyes mirror skies black with fellow buzzards

descending to the feast like bomber pilots.

Too swollen to roost in nearby pines,

these first responders waddle among the kill,

hiss and grunt, while bulldozers scrape tons

of dead fish into dump trucks

destined for local landfills.

On My Granddaughter’s 18th Birthday

          for Kaia

She drifts up the stairs in my cottage like mist

her brown mane spilling shoulders

floral skirt flowing

settles in a glider on an upper porch

cooled by white pines

legs tucked under buttocks

head bowed in a book

for hours on that quiet perch

loses herself in pages

rather than screens

disappears into other centuries,

other cultures, loves and betrayals

her jasmine scent filling the air

this flesh of my flesh

reluctant to speak

yet pregnant with word,

this soon-to-be woman

with so much to birth.

Karen Luke Jackson draws upon oral history, contemplative practices, and nature for inspiration. Her poetry collection The View Ever Changing (Kelsay Books, 2021) explores a sense of place and family ties, while GRIT (Finishing Line Press, 2020) chronicles her sister’s life as an award-winning clown. A poet, educator, and retreat leader with the Center for Courage & Renewal, Karen resides in a cottage on a goat pasture in Flat Rock, NC. When she’s not writing, she companions people on their spiritual journeys. www.karenlukejackson.com  Email: karen@kljackson.net