by Paula Rodriguez
The midsummer dawn has barely opened its dreamy eyes. One river flows peacefully between reed and pebble under the weight of a blanket of algae, painted softly in pea-colored hues. All is motionless. The leaden stench of the impending heat extends over the grasses that dare breathe in the glimmery water kissed by the still pale sunlight. Only the newborn hatchlings and the scant clouds that sail the ocean-blue canicular sky defy the quietude.
Anna's hummingbird
suckles the purple juice
of an old dogwood.
Paula M. Rodriguez is an educator in greater Los Angeles. She started her literary career in Spain, where she won first award on the prestigious poetry prize Francisco Nieva, but focused thereafter on academic publications that deal with different aspects of the literary experience, from Shakespeare to Henry James. Her first poem published in the United States appeared in 2006 in The Blind Man’s Rainbow, under the title “Other Words for Absence.” Since then, she has earned prizes in the Urban Ocean poetry contest, she has published her work in two anthologies, her poems have been published by Scintilla Press and Humble Pie Literary Magazine, and her novella “Angelus” has appeared in The Write Launch.
Comments