Peninsula

Rachel Loughlin

Rachel Loughlin

Did I imagine you 
Like lonely children 
Conjure friends 
To come bleary beside 
When the whole house is sleeping 
When no one else ever 
Set the alarm in the dark 
To stand in the low breakers 
intent watching the horizon 
For the first kindling 
Of impossible light 
Seeing me 
Like I was made of the same fire 
But willed into being 
Because I so badly 
Needed it to be true 
Always rising and setting 
On separate shores 
Of the same ocean 
A thin scrawl of sand between 
Easily flooded by every storm 
But asking that 
Even if we had to build 
A house on stilts 
Above always rising tides 
Even if it didn't last 
That this view: 
A mere hour 
Of incandescence 
Would be worth It

Peninsula was selected for MSUL’s themed call for work about Water, in coordination with the MSU Broad Art Museum’s fall 2023 exhibition, Flint is Family in Three Acts, featuring the photography of Latoya Ruby Frazier.

Explore the power of words

Select your story
0