road trip to the emerald city

lula & cousin mimi at carkeek park, may 2012

we're leaving this morning for seattle, where lula is already having the time of her life with her cousins the campbell's.  i'm posting this poem from my first published poetry collection.  this is the poem my mom always wants me to read if she's in the audience for the reading, and also, here's a link to a reading of it i did on the radio in april.  lula is being kindly cared for by her aunt marni, mentioned in the poem, at this very moment.

Ingrid, over her Tidepool
July 2007, Carkeek Park

The water is near
and it is almost time to leave.

The train from Vancouver
moves along the coastline.

    (moves along between the pines of Takesago
    and the Puget Sound)

Ingrid brushes the smallest anemone
With her first finger and watches it close.

Today is the last day of July--
the first day we remember
summer will leave us.

The summer and the body and the earth
are alike in that way, in the way they change.

    (not even the pines of Takesago
    can be my long-standing companions)

In the kitchen this morning,
the big kids washed dishes
and listened to the Beach Boys,
the same thing I did with my parents’
Beach Boys album when I was 15,
doing my chores, wondering if
other people’s summers
were better than mine.

Lula and Marni
go for a walk,
and leave me with
the bucket, in case
I see more sandcrabs.

“The body is made of mostly water,” Marni tells Lula.

“The earth is made of mostly water,” she says,

“therefore,” she says, “the earth and the body are alike,” she says,

“and they both have little plants and animals living in them,

    (in or on, in or on, in or on)

Like Horton Hears a Who,” she says. 

The aunt
and her niece walk down the beach and leave me
watching the bucket.

    (not even the pines of Takesago
    can be my long-standing companions.
    who, then, will I make my true friend )


Now I know
there is no other,
better summer.


the train passes

the kitchen is clean

summer will end

and I will feed my soul

on daffodils

        a picture





legwear:  grey comfort leggings

inspiration: green, green, green, water, water, water

looking forward: to seeing ingrid again (finally!) tonight