September 28, 2023: Two poems by Kelley Jean White: "Marmots Beware" and "Winnipesaukee, Snow Moon"

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Pediatrician Kelley White has worked in inner-city Philadelphia and rural New Hampshire. Her poems have appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Rattle, and JAMA. Her most recent chapbook is A Field Guide to Northern Tattoos (Main Street Rag Press.) She received a 2008 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant and is currently Poet in Residence at Drexel University College of Medicine. Her newest collection, No.Hope Street has just been published by Kelsay Books.


Marmots Beware

 

Old Faithful, Yosemite, El Capitan!

These cheeky little creatures will not be denied.

You must wrap your car in plastic like enormous

trash or Christmas presents lest the little fellows

crunch up electrics or your engine. Don’t forget

the underwrappings, they can squeeze into your

chassis, and do more damage than our average little

eastern squirrels. They live at elevations over 7000 feet

so we’re mainly safe from their sharp little teeth here

along the Atlantic. But a chipmunk’s brought down

many an old car left idle in the woods. And oh,

gentlemen, please don’t start your engines ‘til

you’ve checked around inside. You do not want

to treat these small friends to a ride in a blender.



Winnipesaukee, Snow Moon

 

today you shrugged

your cold shoulder at me

as I walked along

the beach

 

cold dark birds flew

into a brilliant sky

a blue that would welcome

the fullest moon

by evening

 

I remembered summer

while cold tourists posed

against the barrier

to the boardwalk

 

oh don’t forget to warm

with summer please

this might be our last chance

before I leave

 

and go

where I cannot take you,

my lake-in-the-woods,

my water-in-tall-mountains

my smile, of the great spirit


© 2023 Kelley Jean White

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