Clewiston
I saw them again.
I thought it was a dream.
Then I remembered yesterday
at Las Cruces, where I get the avocado
and cilantro, where they never mind the dog.
Canes thick as clenched fists,
leaning tall, erect. They always surprise me.
Hairy strings unraveling
as if they’ve bundled themselves.
Father swerving the Chevy off-road,
to show us how to cut;
where to sip. Ignoring her
Serge, we’re trespassing!
That worried look.
—Sneaking
through the canes
better than the syrup.
Bio: Lesley Valdes began writing poetry after three decades covering the arts. An award winning music critic, she has served as chief critic of the San Jose News, music and dance critic of the Philadelphia Inquirer, critic-at-large for WRTI (90.1 FM in Philadelphia. Her work has appeared in many national publications including The Wall St. Journal, the New York Times and on National Public Radio, her poems and interviews in The American Poetry Review, Philadelphia Poets, poetryrepairs.org and the Schuylkill Valley Journal. She is graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music and Warren Wilson’s MFA Program for Writers.