Rachael Ikins

Swallows on the Porch

Squeaks, 
voice of another screen 
door-hinge. 
Fledglings, 
mosquitoes out of thin air to feed, 
bomb the German Shepherd, spearing 
parents. Fighter pilots dive, 
row of gaping yellow beaks where 
all you could see was the hen. 
Nest sculpted to barn beams those weeks 
daubed mud. 
Females plain blue, screen, 
iridescent males 
covering,  

swallows on the wire just outside. 
She asked her father why 
one bird hopped on top of another 
the spring when she was six.

******
A thirteen year old grown. 
Between her legs strange 
dampness below the knot 
that tied her to her mother. 

Beautiful English teacher. 
Dreams around the card table, 
Lilac fragrant dinners on the porch.  
Daughter’s cheeks as she clears
plates gentler red.

Grilling steaks/burgers, 
engineer dad cooked
a math project, 
not getting in the last word 
like mother—staccato aftermath
that squeaky hinge slapping. 
Too many beers, glowing cigarette eyes, 
bloody arguments dripping through.

Bass/tenor, you could pick your door 
from 100 screen-songs.
Setting sun eyes dinner’s bones. 
Dark green bamboo blind lowers lid. 

Dad screwed feathers
to the porch frame, stacked 
like folded wings,
like princesses 
waiting for a ceremony.

 

Waiting for the Storm

Belly, 
bloodless exclamations 
into the cloud
over a cairn, 
read the bones. 

Carver voices stitch
sculptures, chuckle wood, 
a tree shatters, and sames repel. 
Sap-sticky, longing. 
Opposites attract. 

Me an asteroid hurtling down the bark, 
through their universe of work. Roar, 
lichen city streaming up and jigsaw-puzzle scent, 
pine fills my head. Peace together, 
I blow  
to the molecules, 
father‘s hand reaches. 
Folding origami cranes 
in the middle 
of my big dark bed.

 

Rachael Ikins is a queer 2016/18 Pushcart, 2013/18 CNY Book Award nominee, 2018 Independent Book Award winner, & 2019 Vinnie Ream & Faulkner poetry finalist.  2021 Best of the Net nominee, 2023 2nd place winner Northwind Writing Competition. A Syracuse University graduate. Author/illustrator of nine books in multiple genres. Her writing and artwork have appeared in journals world-wide from India, UK, Japan, Canada and US.