Among a Thousand Islands

Free Verse Poem by Reed Venrick

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Late afternoon sun settles below a lavender sky 
As dust rises above cattails, you’re lazying easy on
The twilight-shaded side of a island that throngs
With wild palms. An island of five acres, I calculate. 
Petite islands lying among the reeds and everglades
And a shallow inland sea, called the Gulf of Mexico,
You turn in the cyan-blue shade of a linen hammock, 
Tied between bamboo stalks and a cloud-tall
Cabbage palm, though you’re still feeling the heat,
But tepid air rises and the afternoon moves down,
Cooling to sleepy warm, while you gaze out,