Reeds and Evening Sky
—after Cara Weston's Reeds and Evening Sky, Big Sur
There's a filament in tall reeds we take for granted.
Something that twitches.
Follow it sans binoculars.
Follow it closely between stems—a bay with hills.
On this sunless day, the news burns on the tongue.
Hoards are rounded up, told Go back home.
Once, in another country, someone tied a cord to my cousin's leg.
Dragged into town, lined up with others.
Branded.
Here, we created an anthem echoing the buffalo's hoofed steps.
Don't let go, parse through the reeds.
Find the shorebirds hidden from view.
Laurel Benjamin's debut book, Flowers on a Train, is forthcoming with Sheila-Na-Gig Editions. A San Francisco Bay Area poet who considers the Monterey Bay her second home, she is active with the Women’s Poetry Salon, curates Ekphrastic Writers. and is a reader for Common Ground Review. Publications: Pirene's Fountain, Lily Poetry Review, Cider Press Review, Taos Journal of Poetry, Mom Egg Review, Gone Lawn, Nixes Mate. Her work has also been anthologized in Gunpowder Press' Women in a Golden State (2025), The Nature of Our Times: Poems on America's Land, Waters, Wildlife, and Other Natural Wonders (2025), among others. Laurel holds an MFA from Mills College. She invented a secret language with her brother. Read her work at: laurelbenjamin.com
—after Cara Weston's Reeds and Evening Sky, Big Sur
There's a filament in tall reeds we take for granted.
Something that twitches.
Follow it sans binoculars.
Follow it closely between stems—a bay with hills.
On this sunless day, the news burns on the tongue.
Hoards are rounded up, told Go back home.
Once, in another country, someone tied a cord to my cousin's leg.
Dragged into town, lined up with others.
Branded.
Here, we created an anthem echoing the buffalo's hoofed steps.
Don't let go, parse through the reeds.
Find the shorebirds hidden from view.
Laurel Benjamin's debut book, Flowers on a Train, is forthcoming with Sheila-Na-Gig Editions. A San Francisco Bay Area poet who considers the Monterey Bay her second home, she is active with the Women’s Poetry Salon, curates Ekphrastic Writers. and is a reader for Common Ground Review. Publications: Pirene's Fountain, Lily Poetry Review, Cider Press Review, Taos Journal of Poetry, Mom Egg Review, Gone Lawn, Nixes Mate. Her work has also been anthologized in Gunpowder Press' Women in a Golden State (2025), The Nature of Our Times: Poems on America's Land, Waters, Wildlife, and Other Natural Wonders (2025), among others. Laurel holds an MFA from Mills College. She invented a secret language with her brother. Read her work at: laurelbenjamin.com
