Cypress
Trees Michelle Valladares
It is the leaning I look at twice
defying gravity
right angle.
Old sailors with bent backs,
gnarled fingers, towering
on the edge of cliffs
towards the Pacific.
Shaped by wind and mist.
Their leaves are fists,
sturdy and clinging.
Rocks for neighbors.
Gulls rest in branches.
In the way we hold two thoughts
cypress tree / sea
© Michelle Valladares
Michelle
Yasmine Valladares's poems have been published by The Womens
Review of Books, Global City Review, and 7
Carmine. She has others forthcoming in The North American
Review and Risen From the East: An Anthology. She is currently
seeking a publisher for her recently completed work Nortada, The
North Wind.
Valladares holds an MFA from Sarah
Lawrence College. She teaches at the City College of New York and the
School of Visual Arts. She lives in Brooklyn, close to the sea.
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