strange city of asphalt and perpetual construction
better every time, the people think
I sleep in a hotel across from another
mine is barely adequate but the other is large and lush
a fishbowl
I prefer the barely adequate
cigarette burns on the edge of the tub
a broken faucet
I’ll mime bathing instead
I’ll swim through bubbles that aren’t
too few pillows
a broken phone I only use as a weird paperweight
I feel hidden here as if burrowed under soft earth where no one can find me
and I imagine there are squirrels in the walls
keeping me company in my temporary hibernation
maybe I’ll stay here till winter
ground hard as rock in the northern Midwest
then head north from Minneapolis
in search of snowfall
with its heavy embrace
as I lie still in a snowbank
flakes touch me, fall
stars bathe in the blue veins
beneath my skin
I’m plugged in
ready to be seen from space
ready to envelop the stars flowing through my veins
to admit they exist
then, unfettered and somewhat footloose
under aurora borealis
I join a herd of origami reindeer
massage my tender head against theirs
give butterfly kisses with my eyelashes
rub noses
one of them has a message of love
for me in its belly
there are so many ways
to unfold
Liana Kapelke-Dale is a poet and ATA Certified Translator (Spanish to English). She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Language and Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Juris Doctor from the University of Wisconsin Law School. She is the author of Seeking the Pink (Kelsay Books) as well as two poetry chapbooks. Her poetry has been featured in myriad journals, and she has work forthcoming in Roi Fainéant and Shoreline of Infinity. Liana lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with her lovely pointer-hound mix, Poet.
RESURRECTION mag 