memorizing tree lines

 

memorizing tree lines

in the early morning.

               I have yet to sleep

                the pillow smells cool and distant

no matter the day,

somehow it has never smelt different.

               I am called back again and again and againandagainand—

I awake as I never have before

count the steps

               one

                      two

                            three 

                                       four

familiar

words

creak on a foreign tongue

               forsythia taptaptap against my fingertips in the pouring rain. deer do the same number they have

always done.

                                                   the dogs have barely just begun 

 

               I’ll spit and drink thelightgulpingdowneverydripdrop. I promise. the promise has barely just

begun.

 

 

Biographical Note: Flora Trost is currently a sophomore at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she majors in Screen Studies and minors in Creative Writing. She is originally from Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania.