Poetry
APRIL 2018
Rachel Carson at Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Marine Biological Laboratory, 1929
by DONELLE DREESE
It was an ornate church
an altar for moody pools
with corallines, urchins
mollusks and sea fingers.
Every full moon, she watched
the polychaete worms mate
under a dark skin of sea.
Thousands of circles of light
surfaced during this ancient
smoldering night dance.
Holy and terrene affairs
stirred the hub of her being.
She reached out from the soft
cuff of the sea’s marbled coat.
She took long shoreline walks
tide-pooling, examining
her own approachable soul
swirling its finger in a tunnel
of deep time, fixing its eyes
on each wave rolling in
nodding its head yes.
Donelle Dreese
Donelle Dreese is a professor of English at Northern Kentucky University. She is the author of three collections of poetry, Sophrosyne (Aldrich Press), A Wild Turn (Finishing Line), and Looking for A Sunday Afternoon (Pudding House). Donelle is also the author of the YA novella Dragonflies in the Cowburbs (Anaphora Literary) and the ecofiction novels Deep River Burning (WiDo Publishing) and Cave Walker (Moon Willow Press). Her poetry and fiction have appeared in a wide variety of literary journals including Blue Lyra Review, Roanoke Review, Louisville Review, and Quiddity International. Her website is www.donelledreese.com.