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Garland Strother  (email)

 

About the Poet:

Garland Strother is a retired public librarian, who lives in River Ridge, LA, near New Orleans, with his wife Liz, also a librarian.  His poems have appeared in Arkansas Review, South Dakota Review, Louisiana Review, Texas Review, Big Muddy, Plainsongs, Common Ground Review, Foliate Oak, Orange Room Review, Loch Raven Review and others.

 

 

CARDINAL

 

Dense as sun

pigment coats

 

the breast red

crest to tail,

 

wings a frame

the rays acrylic

 

beak and claw

bound in black.

 

 

RAVENS SMILING

 

Black coats turning purple

a dozen ravens rest

on the steel barriers

of I-55 to Pontchatoula

watching the day's traffic

cross Pass Manchac,

feathers barely ruffled

by the off-water wind.

Fine claws locked in place

they wait for the next kill,

smiles lit by the sun

glancing in scent

off the backs of their beaks.