LICKETY-SPLIT by Anne Higgins

Lickety Split

Dig a well at the bottom of the Gulf
So that we will have gas for our cars
So that we can get to where we’re going
Lickety split
Whenever we want.
Then you will see what will happen
Said the old woman.

Disappeared shrimp.

The bottom feeders who are they
And what skims their skins
In the silent miles down
Music floated out an open window

Calling stop the tide
Stop the tide
Thin scrim oil floated in an open window

Herons and egrets we regret

I drank the whole bottle
But it is still there
Green glassy empty

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STATEMENT
Hopkins once wrote “And for all this, nature is never spent…”  I very much fear what he would write today.

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Anne Higgins teaches English at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Emmitsburg Maryland. She is a member of the Daughters of Charity. 

 She has published four books of poetry: At the Year’s Elbow, Mellen Poetry Press  2000, a republished by Wipf and Stock in 2006; Scattered Showers in a Clear Sky,  Plain View Press 2007,  a chapbook, Pick It Up and Read, Finishing Line Press 2008, and another chapbook, How the Hand Behaves, Finishing Line Press, 2009. A fifth book, Digging for God, is due out from Wipf & Stock Publishers in 2011.

Anne been a birder for about 25 years, and as a result, has become very concerned about environmental issues.