August 2018
Jeannie E. Roberts
jeannie.roberts@jrcreative.biz
jeannie.roberts@jrcreative.biz
I live near Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, where I write, draw and paint, and often photograph my natural surroundings. I enjoy spending time outdoors and taking walks with our dog, a thirteen-year-old golden doodle named Yogi. My poems and photography appear in Bramble Literary Magazine and in other journals and anthologies. My fourth poetry collection, The Wingspan of Things, was recently released by Dancing Girl Press. To learn more, please visit www.jrcreative.biz.
La Mujer Voladora (The Flying Woman)
Just beyond the mountains, where peaks reach
the pastel wash of dusk and valleys dip
with shadow, a legend walks in raspberry
and green. After months of pallid landscape,
her presence is welcome respite for wintry
eyes. She travels purposefully wearing wing-
like cape and propeller-shaped hat, steadfast
companions for what's forthcoming. Rising
from the ashen blanket of the Iberian peninsula,
she appears like Greek mythology's phoenix.
Hovering over the peaks of Veleta, whirling
past flocks of stone-curlews, she visualizes
olive trees budding where lagoons fill with red-
crested pochard. As she swoops, crowds gather,
cheer within neighborhoods near the Alhambra
and Royal Chapel. Just beyond the mountains,
where peaks reach the pastel wash of dusk
and valleys dip with shadow, a legend rises
in raspberry and green. She is la mujer voladora,
the flying woman, Veleta's weather vane, Granada's
harbinger of spring.
©2018 Jeannie E. Roberts
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