[Poetry] Two Poems by Amy Barone

Arc of a Diver

John Muir favored the American Dipper,

birds he found joyful whose high trills

echoed above the rush of the Sierra’s waterfalls.

Three white eyelids give the small birds distinction.

Always moving, the flocks mesmerize onlookers

with their bobbing and dipping, swimming

using strong wings and propelling long legs

as they dive and duck in search of prey.

Desiring few mates, Dippers build hut-like nests

of green and yellow mosses on rock ledges

or riverbanks where the songbirds croon

in all kinds of weather, solos amid the flow

of falling water.

At Camp Kapapa

A four-year-old descendant of the last Chief

vies for the mic while we eat bison and elk tacos

at Camp Kapapa on Flathead Reservation—

home of the Salish and Kootenai Nations,

mountain and water people who revere what remains

of their sacred land on Flathead Lake.

Land of cherries, wheat, wine, honey,

and a burgeoning campground,

where Aunt Keya sings traditional songs,

two cousins in native skirts twirl to a ritual dance.

Named “strong warrior” at birth, Uncle Louie Camel

speaks of ancestors, like his grandmother, a welder

who lived near Wild Horse Island in Montana,

and his plans to expand the camp outside bear season,

keep alive a people’s rich oral traditions and soul.

Amy Barone’s latest poetry collection, Defying Extinction, was published by Broadstone Books in 2022. New York Quarterly Books released her collection, We Became Summer, in 2018. She wrote chapbooks Kamikaze Dance (Finishing Line Press) and Views from the Driveway (Foothills Publishing). Barone’s poetry has appeared in The Café Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, New Verse News, The Ocotillo Review, and Paterson Literary Review, among other publications. She belongs to the brevitas online poetry community. From Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, she lives in New York City and Haverford, PA. X: @AmyBBarone