soaking up all
where the waters seepI’m lazy lift
of alligator eyelid
slow to rouse
from dark, dank sleep
I’m drawled out groan
of lily pad protests
as fat bullfrogs
slowly leap
I’m squelch of soil
Under feet that never rush
Always creep
I’m overflow of displaced sorrow
Death visits often
Always on the reap
I’m s t r e t c h e d w i d e
From Carolina’s Cape Fear
Up north
To Virginia’s Chesapeake
I’m your first stop
only chance
last resort
to escape the master’s keep
I’ve lost count of the bodies I hold
But each one housed
a soul grown deep.
—
Audrey T. Williams, MFA, is a published poet and wellness facilitator rooted in the salt marshes and scrub oak-covered sand dunes of coastal North Carolina. Her eco-poetry draws on tidal rhythms, sand dollar wisdom, and the liminal sound spaces where land meets sea. Now based in Northern California, she is a PhD student in liberation psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, she hosts eco-poetry healing workshops using nature-based metaphor and LANDcestral connections.
