sea-greens shilly
in the barter of tide
one tiny eel flips
the letter “c” in a child’s palm
logs loosened by storms,
freed from rafts, afloat
beach asparagus, bull kelp, ficus
rockweed, black ribbon, sea-lettuce
once-coiled rope segmented
for crab pots, anchor lines, buoys
bottle caps, hermit crabs
scuttling from upturned rocks
pottery shards, beached sea-glass,
marbles: jagged, worn smooth, pitted
broken toys, corroded pennies, lost keys –
no Japanese floats
8,000-year-old petroglyphs, sharp rock, stones
for curve and skip: stacked, grained, metamorphic
stone steps, one upon another, pathways
to and from the shallows of tears
deadheads chainsawed, cut, split,
stacked for firewood
a rusted tangle of bicycles, crippled
chains, reflectors fragmented
board swing droops
from a spruce branch
Mother crying cross-
legged on a mattress hauled
to a sea-facing window
KERSTEN CHRISTIANSON is a raven-watching, moon-gazing, high school English-teaching Alaskan. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry through the Low-Residency Program at the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2016. Her recent work has appeared in Cirque, Tidal Echoes, Fredericksburg Literary & Art Review, Inklette, On the Rusk, We’Moon, Sheila-Na-Gig and Pure Slush. Kersten co-edits the quarterly journal Alaska Women Speak. When not exploring the summer lands and dark winter of the Yukon Territory, she lives in Sitka, Alaska with her husband and photographer Bruce Christianson, and daughter Rie.
Inklette Magazine 