Catch, by Jan Seagrave

Untitled, by Bahman Mohassess (Iran) 2010. Assemblage. Published with permission of Rooja Mohassessy and the Estate of Bahman Mohasses.

Catch
               
Struck by sun
your white-hot heron beak
slashes clouds in half
separates sky from sea
beach from waves
water from spray from air
the dying 
from the living

Black eye unblinking
you fish among us
for breath to feed the light
You lay us gasping in rows
on the sandy shore to dry
then fly away 
when we stand 
spared

Jan Seagrave

Jan Seagrave's work appears or is forthcoming in Panoplyzine, San Pedro River Review, Gyroscope Review, Eunoia Review, Reverberations II (ed. Pendergast), Marin Poetry Center Anthology, Redwood Writers Poetry Anthology, Amore: Love Poems (ed. Tucker). Jan has been a writer for universities, a storyteller, and a librarian.