Ella in the Dust,
Ella in the jay’s eye
peering into knotholes
in an apple tree.
Ella in the apples.
Ella in the bass notes
of highway trucks,
in the cardinal’s scoops
and trills, the intelligence
of nests. Ella tall as
the tallest maple,
looming over houses
where televisions glow.
Ella a spiral of air,
stuck like a kid’s finger
in a red blossom. Ella
underground all winter, Ella
in thunder, the moans of cats,
the shouts of children
in a school, the seven
billion people breathing
shared air. Ella in a cold,
blue pool, floating underwater
with her eyes open.
Jeffrey Bean is a Professor of English/Creative Writing at Central Michigan University. He is the author of two chapbooks and the poetry collections Diminished Fifth and Woman Putting on Pearls, winner of the 2016 Red Mountain Prize for Poetry. His poems appear or are forthcoming in The Southern Review, Crab Creek Review, Willow Springs, The Laurel Review, and The Missouri Review, among other journals, and online at Poets.org and Verse Daily. www.jeffreybeanpoet.com
Beaver Magazine 