Lauren K. Carlson

Making Up After an Argument

look
how the strange
boned body

flexes
in the slough
at you

weak
observer
the vision

not the wing
illusive
though near

anhinga’s feathers want water
and as they dive: dive
spread absorb

meantime
light-numbed
birders trot

the dock
slow in circled
binoculars

water lily’s
broad leaves
dart open

tease our curled fins
and sun stung
eyes

Lauren K. Carlson is a poet and spiritual director living in Manistee, Michigan. She is the author of Animals I Have Killed (Comstock Review’s Chapbook Prize 2018). Her work has recently appeared in Crab Creek Review, Salamander Magazine, Terrain, The Windhover, and Waxwing. In 2022 she won the Levis Stipend from Friends of Writers for her manuscript in progress. Her writing has been supported by Tin House, Napa Valley Writers Conference and Sewanee Writers Conference. She currently serves as editor for Tinderbox Poetry Journal and holds an MFA in poetry from the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.

https://www.laurenkcarlson.com/