Karren LaLonde Alenier: Refuge

 Refuge

On the porch of this house a nest
Grows not fabricated by bird
Like the painted bunting houseguest
To Carolina banks sheltered
By low lying shrubs pines anchored
Less by roots more by seaward dunes
No this flat little disk cankered
Into the wood this day in June
Belongs to a wasp jejune
Pest of the insect world vying
To control working to impugn
The peace we rented here flying
About this space we want to claim
My love man of calm spoils reclaims




Karren LaLonde Alenier is the author of six collections of poetry, including Looking for Divine Transportation, winner of the 2002 Towson University Prize for Literature. Forthcoming in late 2015 from MadHat Press is a seventh collection of poetry, The Anima of Paul Bowles.