Bayou Requiem
Rent from DeepDyve- Bayou Requiem
From the bend in the river,at the right time of night,I can see the sky's pulse skipand swell. The soft hum of evening,
Louisiana swelter,a network of glass veinsdirect my breaththrough the stars. From here,
in the grass, beside i-49,their glow is white hot,a thousand tiny lighthousescalling me on. I imagine
each star, a freezing orbof silence and ice,treacherous, uninhabitable, yetsomehow, so inviting. The night
is still. By the shore,The Alligator Man liesin the milkweed, earpressed to earth, [End Page 128]
whispering, darling,can you hear me?His canoe, moored,brimming with baskets of ghost peppers,bobs softly as if to say,
yes, yes, yes. [End Page 129]
Kathryrn Merwin is a native of Washington dc. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the minnesota review, Permafrost Magazine, Folio, apt, Notre Dame Review, and Jabberwock Review, among others. She was awarded the 2015 Nancy D. Hargrove Editors' Prize for Poetry. She currently serves as coeditor in chief of Milk Journal and managing editor of the Scarab.
