April Poetry | Jill McCabe Johnson

In recognition of Poetry Month, and to celebrate and highlight our treasure trove of Orcas Island poets, Orcas Issues is pleased and honored to again offer daily poetry during April.

North Beach, Low Tide

— by Jill McCabe Johnson —

When for a minute or ten of our stretch of a walk
on beach and rocks spread like dark eggs
wet under barnacles and broken shells, when the sun
slipped beneath a point low
………………………………………on the bent horizon
of Saturna and Pender Islands, and the below-
sides of clouds flushed in foggy shades the tint
of yellowed paper or the last calendula, bristled
by northerly winds,
…………………………….we spotted a split pear
of basalt and granite, pink on one half,
near-black on the other, sky and horizon a smear
of ice cream and mud, and you said, We’re overdue
for the big one,
…………………….a seismic event and tsunami,
nine-point-oh on the Richter, and the whelp
of a seal barked or was it a heron. I love you, I said,
and the seaweed smelled of tumbling and smelt.