Mont Saint Michel
Jordan Elizabeth Smith
From a distance, the statue of St. Michel at the top of the abbey, safe in his metal cage, looks out over the landlocked bay islands, and whispers
prayers for the drowned.
The tides at the island six hundred
meters from the coast of
Normandy vary depending on if
the sun and moon
are in syzygy or quadrature,
but all I knew walking
barefoot to the abbey was
the way the hard-packed
sand gave way to calf-deep
mud encasing my ankles
in inches of sludge.
Jordan Elizabeth Smith is a poet and playwright living in Austin, TX. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Texas at Austin. While at UT, she was awarded the James F. Parker Prize in Poetry, and received honors for her creative thesis, a poetry manuscript entitled "The Use of Violence." She currently works as an early literacy tutor serving low-income students in Austin. This is her debut poetry publication.