"In the Shadow of:" by Alifair Skebe

 "Onesquethaw you sing to me 

from the cold dark depths of your mountains shadow."

© Mark W. Ó Brien 2015

She sings. In the shadow of Onesquethaw Hill on a cold March morning. She sings. Through the dark shadow of a poplar tree. She sings. The somber notes of her mourning song. Shattered by the torrent, a ripple of a creek song. Under the water. Beside the bank. Inside the trees. She sings. 

Sunlight, a mother’s cheek,

soft downy rivulets, tears 

for her first born unborn

A woman there lives, and she lives in the water. On dark days, her face appears on the surface. We can hear her singing at night. In our beds. A slow song in another tongue. We go about our business. Her song is the land, the heart of the trees. She is a part of all of us, in the shadow of Cradleboard Hill. 

© Alifair Skebe 2017

"I hear  your voice calling to me from my back porch 

through the trees over the distance."

© Mark W. Ó Brien 2015

~

Alifair Skebe is author of the poetry collections Thin Matter, “El Agua Es La Sangre de la Tierra” (written in English), and Postcards: Les Lettres d’Amour.  She teaches poetry and writing at the University at Albany. 

"Untitled." by Adam Tedesco.

"Homing" © Mark W. Ó Brien 2015

I remember something lifted from me like meaning off the morning’s dream as we entered the texture of day’s tightening loom the rub of cold wool on glass or bare wet skin the rub of time against mind through eyes staring through the field until it sees nothing.  Nothing in the mountain begs a sadness freely given. Nothing in the mountain we need to see as not to feel the difference between its life and ours. Nothing in the mountain swallows whole the thoughts of those that walk upon it as we do unto each other through the field and still we call it king this one slow moment of being outside of what we are. This is what we could have been instead of blinking our eyes.

And the language birds murmur
spits the day's end back

into the form we’re chasing  

~

© Adam Tedesco 2017

Adam Tedesco is a founder of REALITY BEACH. His poems have appeared in FENCE, Gramma and elsewhere. His new chapbook is ABLAZA.

You may also view a book release trailer for ABLAZA  Here.