JEAN MONAHAN is the author of three books of poetry: Hands (chosen by Donald Hall to win the 1991 Anhinga Prize); and Believe It or Not and Mauled Illusionist, both published by Orchises Press (1999 and 2006). She has received several awards and an artist residency at Yaddo. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and magazines, including Poetry, The New Republic, Atlantic Monthly, and Salamander, as well as in several anthologies. Her MFA in Creative Writing is from Columbia University’s School of the Arts.

Egret, Spelled Like Regret

The Great Egret takes us by surprise:

tacked like a clef

to the musical staff of the river sedge.

There! Do you see?

Now her willowy white S is mid-air.

You pull the water hard

to your side

and the children shriek and fall back

their laughter flying high.

We come this close to a spill.

But something’s watching us, too.

A Great Blue Heron

hikes up its gray skirts

and runs like a can-can dancer

through the fringed grass curtain

of the river bank.

Next bend,

the same wide-eyed Heron’s standing stock-still

as we —shushed now—

pass.

– Jean Monahan

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