Frilled, branching, bushy,
Appaloosa spotted, bright green, copper red shredded seaweed ferried by the waves-- one lone white feather drifting and bobbing, and a lone pirate gull out to plunder but the fish are huddled safely far below. Alligator kelp—its head an untethered golden sphere—lurking, spying, waiting before a skirmish on the beach, its seaweed limbs wrestling with the waves, rolling to and fro; an opaque jellyfish floats by, slipping away on some mission of its own. Cormorants as champagne corks bursting upward from surging tides below, the red-stockinged legs of diving guillemots kicking out from their black-and-white feather petticoats, then the torpedo mushroom body of a harbor seal-- its careful dark eyes watching me before it disappears. Swarming yellowjackets presiding, an auklet laid out in the sand with an honor guard of coiled kelp and sentry sparrows; white butterflies listing above tributes of thistles and daisies, mustard and purple bouquets swaying, bleached and softened by wind and sun. Beyond the beach, waves of clouds catch on the spines of distant mountains while braying seagulls celebrate the return of sated fishing boats. Two passing terns circle overhead with a lone osprey sailing by and, on the way home, three sturdy red hens stride down a country road. Nancy Christiansen
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AuthorI am a Northwest artist making collages from mulberry papers stamped by hand from original images that I have carved. Archives
April 2024
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