Cristina Olsen- Three Poems

Little Mutter

 

Little Mutter was her name,

scrappy dog of many scars.

She lay with me that first night,

trembling in my arms with fright.

Something in my heart broke loose,

blossomed in the bonding salve,

high romping in spirit flights

in the garden of delights.

Then life took a sudden turn,

ships signaling a new land.

Lay her down in sackcloth brown,

and sailed half the world around.

 

Bones now lie in roots entwined,

feeding branches to the skies,

memos sent on ocean swells:

“all is well, friend, all is well.”

Dark Night And Sun Rise

 

Dark Night and Sun Rise

came from distant lands,

a Doberman and a Dingo,

prowling around in limbo.

Life was rough then,

girl roaming hippie parks

astride a lover’s Harley bike,

world of hard rock and other highs.

Took to the hills when I could,

canine friends leading the way

to where frontier airs

filled my lungs with sun flares.

 

Freedom alone is a burning fire,

but Dark Night and Sun Rise

taught me to love in mystic guise,

kissing the sun with my eyes.

I find them now on higher ground

looking ahead to regions wild

where I too now stand at night

shoulders draped in rays of light.

Coyote Friend

I hear you barking from fields beyond,

see you bounding up the slope ahead,

my pulse quickens to be with you again.

Wild and winsome in our youth

we ran the hills abreast,

yet I still surge forward on the quest.

 

You came to me a whimpering pup,

then made me laugh with your swagger. 

You grew into a swift tracker,

spanning that liminal space

between the wild and the civilized. 

Together we fled the lowland strife,

found respite on the oaken slopes. 

When you bounded after deer,

inside my ribcage I beat the drum

until you were all done. 

Together in that liminal divide 

of the civilized and the wild

you taught me with your eyes

what no human ever taught

with the babble of their tongue:

that the chase alone

is reason for living,

not the catch but the joy

of keeping in sight

the quivering haunches in flight.

Cristina Olsen was born and raised in Argentina, then continued her education up through the doctoral level in the United States.  For 20 years she lived as a global nomad, shifting residences between South America and the United States and vagabonding through countries around the world, eventually settling in Marin County, California.  She has been a translator, language teacher, lecturer on world religions, and fundraiser for environmental programs.