DC Poets: Karren LaLonde Alenier

OH THOSE GREEN ACRES

“A green acre is so selfish and so pure and so enlivened.” 

from “Celery.” by Gertrude Stein

oh those green acres 

of cotton and cane 

fueled by the selleries 

of black flesh and pain 

the curled lashes thrown 

from the cat the Quakers 

of Nantucket stalked the 

deep green acres of sea 

inviting runaways to man 

their leaky whaleboats

join the quest to harvest 

from white wakes the best 

spermaceti oil to market

to sell fish light from 

leviathan remains ah

those little bits the profits

Karren LaLonde Alenier is author of seven poetry collections, including The Anima of Paul Bowls from MadHat Press in 2016. Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On, her jazz opera with William Banfield premiered in New York in 2005. Visit http://alenier.blogspot.com for more info.