n. The feeling of homesickness without ever leaving home
Winter days half-melted, compressed ripples, dripped icicles around this lake. We haven’t left here for decades. We miss it—this skating rink, sled lane, no-man’s-land between snow forts. Instead, shorelines crumble. We do, too, as muscle atrophies from disuse, as energy both heats and cools. What will come if we stay, if this changes before our eyes? Water needs to run downstream. It might be time for a new beginning, frozen solid, even in a noon sun. Clear ice with light passing through, bright enough to beam us home, away.
Caroliena Cabada is spending this winter trying to warm her perpetually cold feet. Her poems have been published or are forthcoming in Babel Tower Notice Board, Emerge Literary Journal, As It Ought To Be Magazine, and elsewhere. Find her on Twitter and Instagram @cecaroliena.