Ode To Tiny Green Turtles | Turtle, Life, Fear

Spindle is an online literary magazine with a twist, featuring creative non-fiction, poetry and short fiction by, for and about New Yorkers -- literal and spiritual. Showcasing emerging writers, artists, musicians and other notable New Yorkers, it offers a multi-faceted look at New York City and the world beyond through the eyes of both those who love it and hate it, and in many cases, a peek inside the minds of the people themselves.

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Friday, 12 March 2010

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Ode To Tiny Green Turtles

By Rachel L. Olivares,

Favoured : 123

Published in : , Poetry

Six Stacked in Plastic Container Sold by China Woman on Underpass between the 1/9 and L

I know this stacked.
I know this box.
I know this cramped.
I know this lock.
I know the clear.
I know the drear.
I know the scraping sound of fear.

I know the thin and plastic scream
of Plexiglas encasing dreams.
I wish for water
wish for green
I wish for stench
of swamp and streams.
I dream of mud,
of river floods,
of banks of leaves and rotten wood.
I know the helpless indignation-
the bloodied claws of forced prostration.

The open closing mouths and imagined little wails.
The hardened little backs and the ever-scratching nails.
In fear of being overturned
the sky above gapes wide
with plastic on all sides.

Rachel L. Olivares is a New Jersey/New York expatriate exploring other parts of the country; currently in Portland. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from CCNY and spends her time writing, working and analyzing the vast difference between NYC and the rest of the country.

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