Thursday, June 30, 2016

DC Poets: Karren LaLonde Alenier

OH THOSE GREEN ACRES


“A green acre is so selfish and so pure and so enlivened.” 
from “Celery.” by Gertrude Stein

oh those green acres 
of cotton and cane 
fueled by the selleries 
of black flesh and pain 

the curled lashes thrown 
from the cat the Quakers 
of Nantucket stalked the 
deep green acres of sea 

inviting runaways to man 
their leaky whaleboats
join the quest to harvest 
from white wakes the best 

spermaceti oil to market
to sell fish light from 
leviathan remains ah
those little bits the profits



Karren LaLonde Alenier is author of seven poetry collections, including The Anima of Paul Bowls from MadHat Press in 2016. Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On, her jazz opera with William Banfield premiered in New York in 2005. Visit http://alenier.blogspot.com for more info.

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