Walk on Water

Published in Volume 56 of Progenitor.

I shed my sunburnt skin;

make plans to take up residency,

learn how to talk back with a mouthful of seafoam.

There is history buried under this land

in bones and teeth and seeds.

Here you can walk

— not on water —

but on the ground where rivers used to run.

Nothing prepared us for the sky-bruising;

not all those years in the lungs of it.

When the clouds turn red it means

wrap a damp cloth over your mouth and nose.

You’ll know by the texture of the air.

Progenitor is an award-winning art and literary journal founded by the Arapahoe Community College in 1967. You can find their latest issue here.