by Lauren Suchenski
Night Bus Back from DC Protest
I never feel fully assembled when traveling,
self-remnants left with my garden, desk, kitchen
so it’s strange to stare
at my face staring at cities
dark beyond bus windows where
apartments and houses are only faint shapes.
I recall a night drive when small, startled by
my face mirrored in the back seat window,
aware for the first time
lit windows meant people
were home in their own lives,
their untold stories more vital
than my cherished library books.
Then and again now,
above shadowed buildings
scattered with rectangles of light,
I can almost see stories hover in the air
just beyond my own outline here on the glass.
Laura Grace Weldon has published two poetry collections, Blackbird (Grayson 2019) and Tending (Aldrich 2013). She was named 2019 Ohio Poet of the Year. Laura works as a book editor and lives with vast optimism on a small farm where she’d get more done if she didn’t spend so much time reading library books, cooking weird things, and singing to livestock. Connect with her at lauragraceweldon.com.
Lauren Suchenski has a difficult relationship with punctuation and currently lives in Yardley, PA. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize, three times for The Best of the Net and her chapbook Full of Ears and Eyes Am I is available from Finishing Line Press. You can find more of her writing on Instagram @lauren_suchenski or on Twitter @laurensuchenski.