tufted earth
rings the harbor town
where farmers play heart strings
in 6-beat time
after their wool is tucked in
to meadows and barns
in a tidy town
of fragile hydrangeas
contrasting with
coarse beaches
I find a jellyfish
still alive
for a few soft pulses more
clear
like the day
I spot faint veins
on the too-high fields
where potatoes
bloomed rotten
100 years
before I was born
on a farm in Wisconsin
at home, a dairy farmer
full of sad songs and whiskey pours
begs, “Play something happy now…”
to the Irish folk singer
who tills up songs
from a familiar childhood
across the Atlantic
Kimberly Sailor, Mount Horeb, WI, is a 2019 Hal Prize finalist in poetry, with poems also appearing in Sixfold and The Bookends Review. She is the author of the novel The Clarinet Whale. Sailor is the current editor-in-chief of the Recorded A Cappella Review Board, and holds a publicly elected seat on her local Board of Education.
Eunoia Review 