​POETRY 

"flowering stunning purple hues .  .  ."
                            Photo by Weebly.com                                    

Pinniped For Patty
by Kathy Gilbert

Pride of Madeira wharf side drew me nearer,
flowering stunning purple hues. Then I heard
belly-flopping seal dive three times—sounds of
slapping saltwater. It rested, bobbing
its head black, shiny, wide eyed
just on waters’ edge near the pier. 
 
Seemed to peer right at me.          
I started a video take; it plunged
down to the depths leaving concentric
circles of waves changing the tide.
Making a new pattern in rings
a flat wheel of motion. Contained
but still, part of the ocean.
 
Patty texted: what spirit guides a seal?
I googled and got: Innocence, Play &
Imagination. In Celtic culture seals
are thought to be shape shifters, selkies,
always longing for land when in water
and water when on land. Patty replied:
Guess you are destined to write a poem about it.

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​​Kathy Gilbert received her MFA from San Francisco State University in 2013 after a career in public transport. She received the Mark Linenthal Poetry Award in 2012 from SFSU and won the San Francisco Browning Society Gita Specker Award three times for her dramatic monologues. She was commissioned to write a play for the 2015 San Francisco Olympians Festival. Her one act Delphin and the Children of Amphitrite was performed at the Exit Theater. She also tutors third graders, studies tai chi, practices yoga and swims. Her new book Aprils Three: Poems and Photographs is now available locally at Bird & Beckett, West Portal Books, Green Apple on Clement and on Amazon. 

Other works in this issue:
Poetry:
​ August Near the Pacific
Invented Etymologies

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