Anna Cates


THE CAIRN 

               “And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God spoke with him.”—Genesis 35:14

Stone’s chill tingles into the bones 
Footfalls stray among the cairn
Earth shudders and the dying groan 
Stone’s chill tingles into the bones
Wraiths wail and wind makes moan           
Sparks rush to starlight with the burn         
Stone’s chill tingles into the bones
Footfalls tarry among the cairn



By the Sea

saltwater sky
big fish eat 
little fish

gray sands
a weird woman reads 
the bones

black water birds 
a trawler’s hand quavers 
with the worms

waning moon
subsisting on hunger
resounding waves



In His Eye 

thin-framed woman
in her mouth’s darkness
meth demons 

the chemical scent 
of her promise,  
“It’s for food.”

a shadow huddles
behind a cardboard sign 
autumn rain



The Veil 

               There is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness in the proportion.  
               ―Edgar Allan Poe

Concepts blur.  Images ripple through the mind, 
those depths fathomless and murky, tangled 
in seaweed, restless and beset by storms.  

At shadowy hours breasted ships ride 
virgin seas. Waves scintillate 
with moonlight occultation.  

Beyond tide pools, gritty sand and grassy 
banks, grain shapes fields, fruit fills Eden, 
trees robe valleys and hills . . .  

In mermen’s dreams, beyond the aqueous veil, 
dry land goddesses waver in curious shapes:  
Maidens, wives, hags, peculiar stars . . .  
The daring enter as they are.

               fallen stars
               blooming into pearls 
               thunder

Anna Cates is a graduate of Indiana State University (M.A. English and Ph.D. Curriculum & Instruction/English) and National University (M.F.A. Creative Writing). She teaches college writing and literature and graduate education as an online instructor. Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and the Dwarf Stars, Elgin, and Rhysling awards. She is author of the following collections: The Meaning of Life and The Frog King (Cyberwit Press), The Darkroom (Prolific Press), The Golem & the Nazi (Red Moon Press), The Journey (Resource Publications), and Love in the Time of Covid (Wipf & Stock). She presently resides in Wilmington, Ohio with her cats, Freddie and Fifi and is a member of the Tower Poets of the Yellow Springs, Ohio area.

 
 

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