HOMESTEAD
They took the cabin apart
log by log and moved it
down the mountain
so the lake could wash
in the windows
and out the mouths
of their daughter and son,
carved numbers in the beams
before carrying them away
so the wood could come back
together again into a house
and not accidentally
a boat or a tall tree.
The girl and boy played
games hiding toys
in the cracks between logs,
finding them again using clues
written in the wet sand
by the porch where the robins
wandered as the snow turned
pink on the mountains.
At night new syllables
rushed whitecapped across
the children’s tongues,
flowing from one pillow
to the other. Outside
the bedroom door,
their parents marveled
at how quickly water
cuts through earth.
—from Rattle #70, Winter 2020
__________
Alice Pettway: “In the last ten years, I’ve lived on four continents. The experience has challenged and inspired me. Last spring, though, the constant movement finally started to take a toll. I retreated to Lake Clark, Alaska, to spend six weeks as a Chulitna Artist Fellow, hoping to discover a larger structure or meaning in my experiences, I think. Both escaped me. But I found some words, and that was enough.” (web)
