Shopping Cart
    items

      ←

      February 24, 2021HomesteadAlice Pettway

      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 #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.”

      →