Poems by Kathleen Hellen
Archives: by Issue | by Author Name
Cricket
by Kathleen Hellen
From Canary Summer 2013
Kathleen lives in the Jones Falls Watershed where sewage has spilled into its tributaries for decades. The Watershed comprises 58 square miles of urban and suburban Baltimore.
A stealthy dark and quiet
the basement is its own assassin’s night
but for the rumble—
the sump pump rains have wildly flushed
and this
darling pest, his
boisterous vibrations
Cricket in a paddy
in the northeast of the city
digging tunnels
when suddenly he quits
as if danger to the washer could be heard
in the shuffling of my slippers to the load
Danger to the hammers and the mower
Danger to the reign of the blower
Silence studies distance
Silence studies wherewithal and waits
© Kathleen Hellen