Two Poems by Jean Louise Monte

CLOUD

 

You migrate

across the

ocean sky,

a whale

ghost

 

From here

 

I ride

upon your

back and

listen to

silent

songs

 

until

 

You arch

your tail

toward the

stars and

shapeshift

into another

story

 

GREEN JOEYS

 

I put

frogs in

my jacket

pockets when

I find

them sitting

in the

road on

morning walks

before the

sun dries

them into

gray mummies

and curls

their toes

up towards

the sky.

 

I like

the feel

of a

frog’s cool

damp body

in my

hand and

the thrumming

of its

heart against

my fingertips.

 

I like

feeling like

a mother

kangaroo with

a pouch

filled with

green joeys

as I

carry them

to the

stream to

let them

go.

 

 

 

 

Jean Louise Monte's poetry has appeared in California Quarterly, Life As An [Insert Label Here], Avocet: A Journal of Nature Poems, and the Antelope Valley Anthology. She lives in Southern California.