Cullen Bailey Burns
FLORIDA

The pelican was a kite or vice versa
in the way I was a wave
in the body my mind made
of ego and thread.

How do we glue
the ideas into
order? In the gulf,
warm water rocked me.

A daughter floated near.
The pelican dove and rose
tethered to the habit of fish
while the tide came in.

Sunset was promised. Drinks
at the hotel bar. But we meant
a little more than that
floating in bodies

of salt and shell, a warm pool
of Bethesda, a warm dusk, again.

Cullen Bailey Burns lives in Minneapolis and Sturgeon Lake, Minnesota. Her second book of poems, Slip, was published by New Issues Press this fall. Her first book, Paper Boat, was a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award. Her poems have appeared widely, recently in The Ampersand Review, The Adirondack Review, 32 Magazine and many others. At her place up north she keeps bees and excells at growing root crops.

Image credit: Photo by Ibrahim Nasouf on Pexels.

Read more from Cleaver Magazine’s Issue #4.