North
of Big Sur Michelle Valladares
for
Harry Goelet
The back porch overlooks the garden,
roses, lilies, an oak.
Next door, the Pacific.
There is not much to do,
crack a book on the porch,
picnic lunch. Hike to
a waterfall and back.
Gulls fill the air, wind
curls through cypress trees.
Parrots eat clay from cliffs
coating purple tongues
The children run like horses.
Scatter like lupine.
Wild California poppies.
© 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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