This poem originally appeared in The Heartland Review and was given a Special Mention for the Joy Bale Boone Poetry Prize.
Inventing Solace
I am not harboring dark thoughts today,
I have been shipping them out to sea
pushing them in open boats
unarmed into the tide.
I have been pitching stale rye at pigeons
from the floorboard of a doorless car
folding paper airplanes from the pages of Life magazine,
rubbing old wool against the mold of a catcher’s mitt too far gone.
I have been hanging Buddhist prayer flags on strings
within the vast emptiness of my chest,
breaking bottles against the painted names of ships,
aiming to quell my faintness of heart
& call it the beginning of something good.
Kristen Roach