May in Juneau
May brings a southern breeze
Blowing pollen off spruce trees
Sowing little tree baby seeds
Lunch alfresco,
A sandwich and, naturally
My hair in my mouth
The air smells like sweet memories
Of graduation and freedom
My car, green with pollen,
Meanders by mossy stone hedges sheathed
In twisting vines, winding
Over asphalt covered mine tailings
Where ocean once breathed
I roll my windows down and smell the sea.
A woman with long silver hair goes by
The song of a little girl
Powerful, strong
Spills in through my open window,
Passing along my daughter’s school, I see
Friends eating in the yard, sitting on the ground
Every one of them except her –
Where is she?
There, of course,
Dancing across the yard like a fairy
Voice strong and loud,
Heard from miles around, singing to the sea.
— Summer Koester
Eliot Fisk Plays “Memories of Alhambra”
“Memories of Alhambra” he call it,
And already I know I’m in trouble.
Woody Allen’s doppelganger
Dances impossibly deft fingers
Over a small, custom guitar
Sounding not like one, but two.
Transported to a life I have not yet lived,
More lovely than a dream,
I recall stories once imagined
While visiting the ancient Moorish castle
Of love gained and lost,
Deeper than the Mediterranean.
Despair and satisfaction
Of having felt so profoundly,
Loved so intensely …
It is a gift almost too much to bear.
I open my eyes to see antsy children
Squirming on the hard floor.
Devoid of context,
Music means nothing to the innocents.
Mi hijo lost his seventh tooth today …
I invite him to come sit on my lap.
He smells of cherries and apricots.
“Close your eyes and see where the music takes you,” I say.
He won’t, so I close my eyes for him.
Images I once tasted in the Alhambra,
Pheromones of youthful campesinos
Bubble up alongside Spanish dancers,
Humid earth busting
Right before the rain,
Wielding salty tears that run like bulls
Down my cheeks without abandon.
— Summer Koester
The Capital City Weekly accepts submissions of poetry, fiction and nonfiction for Writers’ Weir. To submit a piece for consideration, email us at editor@capweek.com.
