May in Juneau<\/p>\n
May brings a southern breeze<\/p>\n
Blowing pollen off spruce trees<\/p>\n
Sowing little tree baby seeds<\/p>\n
Lunch alfresco,<\/p>\n
A sandwich and, naturally<\/p>\n
My hair in my mouth<\/p>\n
The air smells like sweet memories<\/p>\n
Of graduation and freedom<\/p>\n
My car, green with pollen,<\/p>\n
Meanders by mossy stone hedges sheathed<\/p>\n
In twisting vines, winding<\/p>\n
Over asphalt covered mine tailings<\/p>\n
Where ocean once breathed<\/p>\n
I roll my windows down and smell the sea.<\/p>\n
A woman with long silver hair goes by<\/p>\n
The song of a little girl<\/p>\n
Powerful, strong<\/p>\n
Spills in through my open window,<\/p>\n
Passing along my daughter’s school, I see<\/p>\n
Friends eating in the yard, sitting on the ground<\/p>\n
Every one of them except her –<\/p>\n
Where is she?<\/p>\n
There, of course,<\/p>\n
Dancing across the yard like a fairy<\/p>\n
Voice strong and loud,<\/p>\n
Heard from miles around, singing to the sea.<\/p>\n
— Summer Koester<\/em><\/p>\n Eliot Fisk Plays “Memories of Alhambra”<\/p>\n “Memories of Alhambra” he call it,<\/p>\n And already I know I’m in trouble.<\/p>\n Woody Allen’s doppelganger<\/p>\n Dances impossibly deft fingers<\/p>\n Over a small, custom guitar<\/p>\n Sounding not like one, but two.<\/p>\n Transported to a life I have not yet lived,<\/p>\n More lovely than a dream,<\/p>\n I recall stories once imagined<\/p>\n While visiting the ancient Moorish castle<\/p>\n Of love gained and lost,<\/p>\n Deeper than the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n Despair and satisfaction<\/p>\n Of having felt so profoundly,<\/p>\n Loved so intensely …<\/p>\n It is a gift almost too much to bear.<\/p>\n I open my eyes to see antsy children<\/p>\n Squirming on the hard floor.<\/p>\n Devoid of context,<\/p>\n Music means nothing to the innocents.<\/p>\n Mi hijo lost his seventh tooth today …<\/p>\n I invite him to come sit on my lap.<\/p>\n He smells of cherries and apricots.<\/p>\n “Close your eyes and see where the music takes you,” I say.<\/p>\n He won’t, so I close my eyes for him.<\/p>\n Images I once tasted in the Alhambra,<\/p>\n Pheromones of youthful campesinos<\/p>\n Bubble up alongside Spanish dancers,<\/p>\n Humid earth busting<\/p>\n Right before the rain,<\/p>\n Wielding salty tears that run like bulls<\/p>\n Down my cheeks without abandon.<\/p>\n — Summer Koester<\/em><\/p>\n The Capital City Weekly accepts submissions of poetry, fiction and nonfiction for Writers\u2019 Weir. To submit a piece for consideration, email us at editor@capweek.com.<\/b><\/p>\n Two poems by reader Summer Koester. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":48723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7],"tags":[74,73],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-48722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-ccw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48722"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=48722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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