Claudia M. Reder

Why I Live Near Water

I need the stretch of horizon
and sea winds that let me know
the world is constantly in motion,
that dust travels continents
with my lost hats.

I am not immune to storms
and enormous waves crashing the coast
or the sign that says Tsunami Zone.
But I am not leaving.

As the sea freed me, let it take me.

I am comforted by boats in their slips
in the harbor, the pilings reflected in the water,
the sailboats empty of sails,
their slight rocking.

I listen for the sea lion’s gruffness
as they haul out on to the docks,
those adolescent, annoying barks,
and the cormorant, its black lengthy
missile of a body hurtling into the sky.

The pelican I thought I saw was a gull.
My vision isn’t what it used to be.
I carry the weight of my scars,
fold them into poems
and send them off into the sea.

 

Thirst

When you question what it is all for,
forage among flowers,
these dabs of paint thrown
onto stems, their rush of color,
a flourish of disquiet
reminding us that underneath
a hidden river flows.

Listen for a child’s footsteps.
She will usher you through
this palette of primary blues,
greens, yellows, orange poppy.

She will say it’s summer
and offer a song. She’ll say,
Let’s meet at the intersection,
where one side darkens, the other
enlightens. Which is which
you’re never sure.

We are made of water.
Each flower we touch will
go to seed. They are always in flux.
One petal loosens. One stem
bows over itself; one, red-winged,
ready for lift off.

 

Claudia M. Reder is the author of How to Disappear, a poetic memoir, (Blue Light Press, 2019), Uncertain Earth (Finishing Line Press), and My Father & Miro (Bright Hill Press). How to Disappear was awarded first prize in the Pinnacle and Feathered Quill awards. She was awarded the Charlotte Newberger Poetry Prize from Lilith Magazine. She recently retired from teaching at California State University at Channel Islands where she included poetry and storytelling in her classes. Her poetry manuscript Appointment with Worry was a finalist for the Inlandia Institute Hillary Gravendyk Prize.