by Alan Bern
Desert
Walk with me—into this desert.
that
unresolved expansion of fog
where you
is not the proper term
you
don’t exist
a story has been intruded upon
not that the desert would use the word
intruded
it won’t remember
you, the mirage of age
tasting delicately water
that won’t be there
just a shadow passing the canvas
a few will hide, some will puff or strike at the empty expanse
because remember
you are not—
The desert is vast.
Evan Burkin (he/him) is particularly fond of Russian authors: Dostoevsky, Sokolov, Shiskin, Nabokov, Akhmatova, among others. He works as a development writer at his alma mater, where he studied creative writing in California. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Analogies & Allegories Literary Magazine, and Sur. He’s on Twitter @e_burkin.
Retired children’s librarian Alan Bern’s poetry books: No no the saddest and Waterwalking in Berkeley, Fithian Press; greater distance and other poems, Lines & Faces, his broadside press with artist and printer Robert Woods, linesandfaces.com. Among Alan’s awards: his poem “Boxae” was first runner-up for The Raw Art Review’s first Mirabai Prize for Poetry, 2020, and he won a medal in 2019 from SouthWest Writers for a WWII story set in Italia. Recent photos: unearthedesf.com/alan-bern-2/, pleaseseeme.com/issue-7/art/alan-bern-art-psm7/, mercurius.one/home/alanbern. Alan performs with dancer/choreographer Lucinda Weaver as PACES: dance & poetry fit to the space and with musicians from Composing Together, composingtogether.org.