I’d think on Dolly Parton, ageless idol, my blue bird
of happiness in her coat of many colors
riding on a peace train.
Now I’ve seen a sketch of tardigrades,
dot-sized creatures found in only those mountains,
those same ones Dolly’s from.
Dolly, do you wonder as you sing, voice
like a stream over sun-spotted rock,
of the sweet-faced life within a water drop
splashed over and pooled on a grain of bank sand?
Little water bears, do you hear Dolly on her barefoot mossy walks,
hilly music drifting like streamy clouds? Do you cluster in a water-film world
hum hum hum along and nod your tiny heads?
[+]
Alexa Mergen's poems are forthcoming in Nimrod and
Virginia Quarterly Review. She’s been a finalist
in the Loft’s Speakeasy Prize and her poem
“Distance,” published in Solo Novo, was a
clmp Taste Test selection. Her articles on
poetry appear in Front Porch, HerCircle
and Passages North. She edits the blog
Yoga Stanza and leads workshops that
combine poetry, meditation and movement.
