by Jim Ross
With Holly
when you were sick
and I was old
we both walked slowly
sank under a tree
touching
sometimes I sank first
and you followed
sometimes you sank first
and I followed
we always sank
into a touch.
Without Holly
I walk on the road now
stare into the woods
if I entered
and a bear was watching
there’d be no one to warn me
no one to freeze and inhale the air
with the scent of danger.
I walk on the road now
and don’t stop
to watch you sniffing
to sense you sensing
but still your presence
is by my side
I walk on the road
alone with you.
margot lasher is a playwright: Other Minds, Intake, I Belong Somewhere, and recently, The Football Play. She writes about our connection to animals and our environment, and an understanding of the brain that goes beyond the accepted ‘normal’. Her monologue Stay, for actor and dog, was performed at the New York State Psychology Conference, and The Dogs was included in a work about trauma for the RecoverMe mental illness project. She lives in rural Vermont with all the animals. https://newplayexchange.org/users/1549/margot-lasher
A resident of New York City, Kerfe Roig enjoys transforming words and images into something new. Her poetry and art have been featured online by Silver Birch Press, The song is…, Pure Haiku, Visual Verse, and The Ekphrastic Review and published in Ella@100, Incandescent Mind, the Raw Art Review , The Anthropocene Hymnal: Songs of a self-defining era and several nature inspired anthologies. Follow her explorations on her blogs, https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/ (which she does with her friend Nina), and https://kblog.blog/, and see more of her work on her website http://kerferoig.com/.