Released from formal education, we set out,
walked until we came to the edge,
made camp where river meets ocean.
Determined to come only with questions,
we asked, Who are you?
Marked swellings and diminutions
while we waited for an answer,
cupped our hands and tasted: in places fresh, others briny.
Too wide to swim across.
Blue crabs climbed over our bodies.
We schooled with white perch, black drum.
The northern stargazer kept watch.
What was coming unhinged its jaw,
breathing salt into our lungs,
here all along, rearing up,
translucent.
Alison Hicks was awarded the 2021 Birdy Prize from Meadowlark Press for Knowing Is a Branching Trail. Previous collections are You Who Took the Boat Out and Kiss, a chapbook Falling Dreams, and a novella Love: A Story of Images. Her work has appeared in Eclipse, Gargoyle, Permafrost, and Poet Lore. She was finalist for the 2021 Beullah Rose prize from Smartish Pace, an Editor’s Choice selection for the 2024 Philadelphia Stories National Poetry Prize, and nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Green Hills Literary Lantern, Quartet Journal, and Nude Bruce Review. She is founder of Greater Philadelphia Wordshop Studio, which offers community-based writing workshops.
Euphony Journal 