In the searing heat and smoke we step back,
not expecting death to find us
on the way home from our fruit smoothie;
the exotic thrill of guava still on our tongues.
Lisa Reily is a former literacy consultant, dance director and teacher from Australia. She is now a budget traveller with two bags, one laptop and no particular home. You can find out more about Lisa at lisareily.wordpress.com.
Title “Da Eye Wifey” borrowed from Shooglenifty.
Emerge from the fog road
squint-eyed
to belly flopping waves
jumping from one small sea-
sick ferry to another
saltwater & cod tongues
summer grasses & violet lupine.
Blue butterflies swarm
the sunlit forest.
Awakened, we ramble;
Trans-Canada Highway
from west to east
and back again.
Mile 0,
I’d follow you forever.
Chime of cymbal,
song’s end.
Kersten Christianson is a raven-watching, moon-gazing, high school English-teaching Alaskan. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing/Poetry through the University of Alaska Anchorage in 2016. Kersten’s recent work has appeared in Cirque, Inklette, Sheila-Na-Gig and Pure Slush. Her book Something Yet to Be Named by Aldrich Press and her chapbook titled What Caught Raven’s Eye by Petroglyph Press will be published in 2017. Kersten co-edits the quarterly journal Alaska Women Speak. When not exploring the summer lands and dark winter of the Yukon Territory, she lives in Sitka, Alaska with her husband and photographer Bruce Christianson, and daughter Rie.
Foxglove Journal 