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The Legal Studies Forum
Volume 30, Number 1/2 (2006) reprinted by permission Legal Studies Forum Lawyers & Poets A World Inhabited REBECCA CLARK _______________________ Baby Born In Tree Sophia Pedro gave birth to a baby girlWet-leafed arms for the cradle, a bassinet of branches that rock to the rhythm of each laborious shudder, winged tenants your nervous midwives, as the occasional waterlogged snake seeks refuge, hisses softly at your arduous moans, the green rattle of leaves, the breeze that fans your fevered brow. With each contraction your arms grasp round the thick strong trunk, only its back brave enough to hold you aloft, to keep you from dropping down to that swirling world below like a leaf afloat on its first breath, swimming out beyond your wildest hope. [603]
Morning Drive The morning air is sharp as glass. The crack etched in the windshield like a contrail traced over the blue shell of sky. At the bottom of the hill, a glimpse of something perfect: the starling that bobs across the path of my car, the trees blossomed in gold leaf, the arch of crisp light. Just that instant. I close my eyes, hold my breath to remember what's already gone. [604]
Sun Bird . . . the phoenix outlives nine ravens,All morning ravens cry their dismay calling up the dream where you and I drive along the riverbank over a stubble of trees cut feet above the ground. We follow no road, only the curve of shore. I close my eyes as we slide into the green ripple where we sink, of course, like stones. I remember not to breathe, surprised at the painlessness of fear, crank the window open wide enough to swim into the filtered light, pull you through the narrow space. We kick up toward the memory of air, break the surface, breathe down into our deepest depths. Now, the birds fly across the scarred land on our southern boundary as if to survey the damage exposed by sun's light: stumps reduced to a pile of smoldering ash; but through the lacey curtain that drapes the northern window, the Rock Rose's papery blooms glow like flames. [605]
Rebecca Clark manages a volunteer lawyer program in Washington's Skagit Valley where she lives with her husband and daughter. She has had recent poems in Rattle, Heliotrope, Literary Salt, and Pontoon 8, and has work forthcoming in Switched on Gutenberg and Pearl. "Baby Born in Tree" was previously published in Wicked Alice; "Morning Drive" first appeared in Avocet; "Sun Bird" in Kaleidowhirl. |
