by Jessica Coles

I drop love letters into the river
to dissolve ink

minerals surrender to water for the joy
of a journey they can leave any time

water surrenders to the subtle tilt of earth
rolls, ripples, riffles dictated by ground travelled

placid winding across the prairies: a sly secret
of curvature that tips love under the ocean

under the sun, water surrenders to the atmosphere
my meditation app compares the sky to a smile

that compares my fixations to clouds that compare
my thoughts to love: water converted and puffed

open for anyone to imagine into horses or ducks or
angel wings. My love amasses drop by drop and surrenders

to the thirst of foxtail barley growing
between the cracks in an unused parking lot

edging an inky river

Jessica Coles (she/her) is a poet and editor from Edmonton, Alberta, A (Treaty 6), where she lives with her family and a judgmental tuxedo cat named Miss Bennet. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Prairie Fire, Moist Poetry Journal, Crow Name, Capsule Stories, Full Mood Magazine, Contemporary Verse 2, EcoTheo Review, and You are a Flower Growing off the Side of a Cliff. Her chapbook, unless you’re willing to evaporate, is available through Prairie Vixen Press. You can find Jessica on Twitter @milkcratejess.