A Poet Reads in Florida
Out of her mouth: pearlescent shells, dolphins
silvering the surface of water, fleet-
finned crescent diving and disappearing.
Ospreys nest on power poles, while the street
underneath hums with wheels. Out of her mouth:
the sharp shriek of a limpkin’s cry, rhythm
and repetition, sad serpentine sound,
bouncing off the ancient xylophonic
back of a sun-bathing gator, whose jaws
await the unsuspecting pug. Out of
her mouth: an elegy, a plea gnawing
what we’ve lost, in tune to the skittering
armadillo crossing a cramped highway
towards a world of green so faraway.
