Three Poems by Courtney Lora Lang

Morning in Santa Cruz Bay

The bay exhales nesting boats.
Each lulls in time with a steady tide.
Sailboats—surfaced Angler fish—
Mark their locale with end-lit flagella:
content with these topside posts.

Yachts pulse sulfurous
unable to entice their prey
away from the sultry sails.

East begins to unwrap her fire
into cobalt and softer hues.
The bay nestles closest,
just before commerce awakens
fishermen and tourists
to the lure of day.

***

Ode to the River Otters

You bullies of the black water—
bodies of slick wet coal dust,
necks yellowed the tone of
a smoker’s white kitchen walls—
cut the stream with the blade of your backs,
trouped up out of the swamp,
meerkats of the lagoon.
You warned, barked, unearthly chatter.

The size of your family smaller than average.
I envisioned your siblings, dead before age four,
caught in the dynamite blasts of fishermen
somewhere close, north of the Yasuní.

Yet how far you came to be here,
scolding our canoe,
ghost dogs of your extirpated kin.
Did your ancestors make this journey
ten years in the past,
slide back to this stagnant stand
from the ríos of Suriname, Brazil, Peru?

You were the joy of my afternoon,
bellies glistened with onyx glint,
howls and harps rung out,
declaration of your status as river wolves.

I left you, took example,
wandered transient, slid down river
ever mindful of my group.
Thought of being found, ten years later,
swimming slim and solitary,
in search of my own place, a mate,
a tributary to start in, anew.

***

Grandfather

Your holidays all start the same
Nat King Cole
Frank Sinatra
humming, hiding your fear
someone will not arrive,


jingling
your dead wife’s wedding band
against your pocket change.


Courtney Lora Lang's current endeavors include jogging, cleaning out all the stuffed-up crannies in her home, teaching English at Edinboro University, and working as the Writing and Grants Consultant for Bricks PGH, a non-profit, young adult cancer support organization. She is also a member of the Most Wanted Fine Art Collective. Ms. Lang currently lives in Washington, PA with her dog, Zoë.