Art: Mtandao wa Kijani wa Kwaku Ananse by Mick Ó Seasnáin
SUMMER DAY AT HUNTINGTON BEACH
I tick with alarm clock worry.
My sister is afraid of nothing.
Not the dark or death or
Jay Preslan down the street
who pushes kids in front of cars.
Look at her run into the water
while I stand squinting.
She doesn’t pinch her nose
to dive under. Doesn’t pause
before splashing back
strange splashing kids. Doesn’t heed
the lifeguard’s megaphoned warning
to stay away from the ropes.
Lake Erie grabs at the shore,
slurps it greedily in foaming waves.
I picture monstrous goggly-eyed fish
lurking under the pier,
ships skudded in the depths,
lost sailors forever unburied.
I inhale the curved scent
of suntan lotion, clench my toes
in the sand, stand still. Far out,
bobbing in foil-bright waves,
my sister is another being entirely,
straining at the boundary ropes
trying to see all the way to Canada.
Previously published by Silver Birch Press.
About the author:
Laura Grace Weldon is the author of a poetry collection titled Tending and a handbook of alternative education, Free Range Learning, with a book of essays due out soon. She’s written poetry with nursing home residents, used poetry to teach conflict resolution, employed poetry in memoir writing classes, and painted poems on beehives although her work appears in more conventional places such as J Journal, Penman Review, Neurology, Verse Daily, Tikkun, Literary Mama, Christian Science Monitor, Mom Egg Review, Pudding House,and Shot Glass Journal. Connect with her at lauragraceweldon.comand @earnestdrollery.
Art: Mtandao wa Kijani wa Kwaku Ananse by Mick Ó Seasnáin
In the artist’s words:
Mick Ó Seasnáin has continually attempted to farm his quarter acre lot in the small town of Wooster, Ohio while catering to the diverse and often unanticipated needs of his tripod-ish dog and three feral-ish children. His wife tolerates his creative habits and occasionally enables his binge writing. Find more of his work at https://tinyurl.com/MickOSea