Charlotte Innes
Dolphin Hour
I wake from exhausted sleep
to late afternoon sun
on dust, and a glowing parade
of animals—hare, peacock,
gazelle, tiger, dolphins—
on an old pencil box
from someone I loved once.
A friend's sister is dying.
Huge waves break and bulge
and break on the drowning edges
of the hour. Here are my hands,
still able to hold a face
lovingly,
as you, Dolphin,
curve your back
to an arc of leaping waves.
Bio
Charlotte Innes has published two chapbooks of poems, Licking the Serpent (2011) and Reading Ruskin in Los Angeles (2009), both with Finishing Line Press. Her poetry has also appeared in anthologies, including The Best American Spiritual Writing 2006 (Houghton Mifflin), and various journals, including The Hudson Review, The Sewanee Review, Spillway, and The Raintown Review. She has also written about books and the arts for many publications, including the Los Angeles Times and The Nation. Currently, she teaches creative writing at Yeshiva University of Los Angeles High School. Charlotte Innes is originally from England, the daughter of a Jewish refugee from Germany; a New Yorker for 12 years, and for the last 22 years, a Southern Californian, happily ensconced in Silver Lake, Los Angeles.