Donelle Dreese
Rachel Carson's Ghost
She crossed the Allegheny River
wearing anklets of river grass.
I followed her through Springdale
on a trail of broken crab claws
bits of sea glass and bones of fishes.
She paused at a fracking field
where the aquifer detonation
rocked a chemical earthquake
turned her white glow to gray.
She faded then, the way a ribbon
of mist wilts over an evergreen.
but the look in her eye was a cold ring
an alarm without an answer
a scream without a mouth.
wearing anklets of river grass.
I followed her through Springdale
on a trail of broken crab claws
bits of sea glass and bones of fishes.
She paused at a fracking field
where the aquifer detonation
rocked a chemical earthquake
turned her white glow to gray.
She faded then, the way a ribbon
of mist wilts over an evergreen.
but the look in her eye was a cold ring
an alarm without an answer
a scream without a mouth.
Donelle Dreese is a Professor of English at Northern Kentucky University. She is the author of three collections of poetry, Sophrosyne (Aldrich Press), A Wild Turn (Finishing Line), and Looking for a Sunday Afternoon (Pudding House). Donelle is also the author of a YA novella Dragonflies in the Cowburbs (Anaphora Literary) and the novel Deep River Burning (WiDo Publishing). Her poetry and fiction have appeared in a wide variety of literary magazines and journals.