Flight by Sea​

Issue 18

you who bear a light in you step into the boat
knowing unlike the migrating bird you may never    
arrive     recall that each wing-bone and feather
has a suite of fibers that can shift its position
and adjust the wing’s total geometry     remember
that the old patterns were only temporary boundaries
a trace of wind flutters over the waves that slip
back  in their silvering fringe    behind you the moon
glints across the mica-veined mountains a nightjar
calls to you faintly in your native tongue   how cold
it is       pull the shawl the thread-bare coat tighter
around your shoulders              step into the boat
in flight from the land with love’s heavy luggage

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LAURA ANN REED is the author of the chapbook Homage to Kafka (Poetry Box, 2025). Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has appeared in nine anthologies including Poetry of Presence (Grayson Books, 2023) and The Wonder of Small Things (Storey Publishing, 2023).

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