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Sharing Red

by Kim Baker

After Ready for Harvest, by Kathryn Kleekamp

Like a smiling red-headed child
swaying unbridled alongside a more cautious marsh,

a bog,
its many lavish sassamanash cranberries furring the landscape,
harvests the autumn air and light,
catches fire like so many fruity lightening bugs.

Wampanoag legend portends
the cranberry was carried from heaven
in the beak of a white dove
as a gift from the Great Spirit.

Maybe Her cranberry hair was full of one too many berries,
so she shared her crimson abundance lovingly
that Cape Cod might harvest this auspicious fruit,
this generosity,
this blood red energy of life passed on
from one tribe to another.

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When she isn't teaching the abundant virtues of the comma at Roger Williams University School of Law, writing poetry about big hair and Elvis, and doing the Cha Cha, Kim Baker works to end violence against women.

Kim's poems have been published online and in print and essays broadcast on NPR. Three short plays have been stage-read at Culture*Park in New Bedford.

Kim's first chapbook of poetry, Under the Influence: Musings about Poems and Paintings, is now available from Finishing Line Press.

Kim is currently working on a book of ekphrasis poems about the stories and portrayals of women in the paintings of female artists. Kim can be reached at bighairedpoet@gmail.com.