by Amrutha Prabhu
Trek
year
/yir/
noun
1. the time taken by the earth to make one revolution around the sun.
remember
the year we had
all funerals
and no weddings
coffee spoon shovels
loss a black hole
like a rip tide
perfectly delicate longing
still waters
become stagnant
the sharp intake
before a scream
or the slow rise
before a sigh
where is this year
rooted deep within our bellies
drifting ghost
poison and cure
secret cancer
glued to your sleeve
scarlet letter
upon your breast
gnawing the throat
floating just beyond fingertips
now you must
tuck it away
pockets full of
sea glass and stones
with withered dry
dandelions
the attic heap
urn or a dish
find a place for it where you can
endure it
carry it well
swaddled and warm
perhaps strapped to
our backs we are
most reluctant
sherpas slogging
scaling wild peaks for those to come
Laura Sminchak’s poems have appeared in publications such as From Whispers to Roars and Cathexis Northwest Press, among others. She lives in Ohio and is a licensed attorney. She spends her time adventuring with her young children and jumping into rabbit holes. You can find her on Instagram at @laura_writes_words.
Amrutha Prabhu, a computer engineer, discovered her love for poems and art in her mid-30-ies. Having worked as a software developer for more than 13 years, she strongly feels that life’s most meaningful things are not things. A nature lover and cooking enthusiast. She considers herself fortunate to be an Indian and values her rich culture and heritage. Of all roles that she plays, she feels, being a learner – most enjoyable, being a mother – most challenging, and being a woman – most vulnerable. Her love for learning, art and poems found home at Haiku, Haiga and related Japanese forms of poetry. She has several of her works published in reputed journals. She is a kind of person who makes little happy notes of moments that makes life worth living. Most of the times it is arrested through her poems and paintings; or expressed through food. She believes at 80, she might be cherishing these little happy notes that made her days.