Jennifer Lagier

Fluidity

The human spirit is made from water — Jorge Luis Borges

I surface from sleep,

splash dry face, rinse scratchy eyes,

shuffle to the kitchen,

swallow my daily ration of pills.

Outside, mist drips from incoming fog.

Spider webs sparkle with liquid diamonds.

Puddles collect beneath olive tree,

saturate sodden ground.

Rivulets from the neighbor’s broken sprinkler

glitter as precious water is wasted.

Renegade outflow gurgles downhill,

transports rafts of rose petals, twigs.

From time to time,

sunlight burns through low-lying clouds.

Ocean breeze ruffles sage and manzanita.

Temperature rises, falls, rockets skyward again.

It’s a typical summer morning,

coastal weather shaped by central valley heat

as nature’s air conditioning

pulls moist miasma over beaches and dunes.

Jennifer Lagier lives a block from the Monterey stage where Janis Joplin performed, and Jimi Hendrix torched his guitar. She has published twenty-three books. Her work appears in a variety of anthologies and literary magazines. She taught with California Poets in the Schools, edited the Homestead Review, currently edits the Monterey Poetry Review, serves as Web Goddess for Misfit Magazine, and helps publicize Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium Second Saturday readings. Website: jlagier.net, Facebook: www.facebook.com/JenniferLagier/