Stonewash sky, distressed denim gulf, each palm tree sensuously distinct as the organs of lovers, this bulge, that angle, I admire each one as if I could commit the entire grove to memory. Over the dunes, waxy myrtle crackles with songbird, yellow goldfinch resting after a thousand miles. A heron startles. I’m tired after a mile of carrying this child on sand. No shade among these pines and palms. Tornado warnings, gulls far away. I lean into the salted wet curls of my last baby and heave my miracle back along the way we came. So many hikes these days end as they begin, abandoned. Pelicans and herons recognize me, worn in blue.
Edie Meade is a writer, artist, and mother of four in Huntington, West Virginia. Recent work can be found in Atlas & Alice, The Normal School, Feral, Still: The Journal, and elsewhere. Say hi on Twitter @ediemeade or https://ediemeade.com/.
Featured Artwork:
Horizon Lines
Paul Rabinowitz is an author, poet, photographer and founder of ARTS By The People. His works appear in The Sun Magazine, New World Writing, Burningword, Evening Street Press, The Montreal Review and elsewhere. Rabinowitz was a featured artist in Nailed Magazine in 2020 and Mud Season Review in 2022. He is the author of The Clay Urn and Limited Light, a book of prose and portrait photography, which stems from his Limited Light photo series, nominated for Best of the Net in 2021. His poems and fiction are the inspiration for 4 award winning short films. www.paulrabinowitz.com