ELIZABETH FLETCHER - POEMS

Elizabeth Fletcher’s poems have appeared in The Schuylkill Valley Journal, The Scarlet Leaf Review, the anthology Lost Orchard, the Plum Tree Tavern and Ariel Chart. Several of her nature essays have been published in The Philadelphia Inquirer. She is a co-author of research publications in the medical education field and for many years, wrote and edited materials for a medical education company. She has a BA in English from Hamilton College, and an MS in Technical Communication from Drexel University.  She is currently a free-lance writer living in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.

Five O’clock Slide
​

​ The green hulled trawler slides
 through the sandbar
 swings sideways into the pier
 engines clunking
 First of the afternoon boats
 
Two men in yellow rubber hip waders
scrungy knit caps pulled over red burned ears
shovel sea bass dripping ice
into elevator buckets for the slide
down steel chutes to market
 
Three sleek, fat pinniped boys
Radar whiskers humming
Torpedo through dappled water
 
Up pop heads
Sea dark liquid eyes scan
The boys are on the prowl
 
A deck hand tosses a fish head
One seal rises like a kelpie
from the bay
snaps with needle teeth
Gets only air
 
A Laughing gull wheels
screaming insults
Soars with the prize
The gray seal flips and rolls
 
Now the crew brooms blood and guts
down the deck
The gunnels run pink and salty
The kelpie
muscles out his wingmen
to get at the back of the boat
 
Slides under the gunnel hose
mouth agape
for the shooting blood, guts and brine
 
Whiskers quiver
Long-lashed sea dream eyes close
Blissed out by
Five o’clock fishtini
 
On the restaurant deck above
A pink-cheeked woman in a floppy straw hat
gets it all on video
Her five o’clock martini
olive dirty
slides ice cold down her throat
 
 

Ode to a Garter Snake
​

​You lie in the tangled brown grass left by winter
in your sunny spot
basking
fueling for spring
The mail man has stepped over you
unseeing
 
The sniffing dog has passed by
this morning
pulled along by his leash
His bark has not moved you
 
The six-year-old boy who brandishes sticks
is at school
He will not poke you
Today
 
The straw-hatted woman
is in the back  garden planting pansies
She’s unearthed a toad
She will not shriek at you
Today
 
You gave me an electric thrill
Just now
The gold and green ribbon of you
Lying unfurled
beside my flagstone path
 
You beguile me
though you are called common
Your round black eyes shine
Your scales gleam
Perhaps you are hunting
Listening for the rustle of a vole
 
Or like me, you are yearning
For the end of freeze warning nights
and early darkness
Yearning for hot sun on your face
Craving the peace of just a few
moments
to be
 
I sit on a rock beside you
You don’t slither away
or strike me with your venom
Today,
you and I are
together, alone
Quietly
Warming in the vernal sun
 

Hooked
​

​The lashing tail whipping air,
the crooked come on smile
Captain Hook didn’t get it
That croc only wanted to wrap him up
in Wrestle Mania arms
Lay her snout in the pirate’s lap
 
Inches from his crotch
 
Captain Hook
Only heard the slithering in dark waters
The ticking clock
Felt the clammy breath
Smelled the swamp
 
Inches from his face
 
Hook didn’t want to
snuggle
on the couch
Watch the
Wilde beast snapped up
Devoured in HD
 
That croc only wanted to
wrestle
Tickle his funny bone
With a prehistoric claw
Croon a love song
 
Inches from his ear
 
Captain Hook didn’t get
The vibe
The scene
The Jurassic cool
 
Inches from his throat
 

Photo Op
​

​Sunlit midsummer creek
Beaver pops up
Slaps tail
Photographer slips in mud