Canción
By Laura Last
My son flew out west yesterday, into sunset’s bloodshot eye, back to the desert where dust hides its venoms and salves. Life holds itself in dry stumps, and at night: that bowl of sky, punctured by stars. He loves the creosote smell after rain, the saguaro that blooms after dark. Scorpion shoe, hidden wound—he is half javelina, a tough-hided creature patrolling the canyon with his wide-shouldered squadron, hiding the most tender parts of himself: just what we meant not to teach him. Here in his boyhood home, rain smears the skylight, too warm to freeze. Attic dripping with absence, a room thick with loss and relief. We sent him away to keep him alive and so far, it has. Face-down in his pillow, I pretend to breathe in his mountains, his sky, the smell of wet dog in his bed. We know we walk backwards by water, blind- folded, unclenching, unpeeling ourselves off of him: only child, phantom limb.
Laura Last is a writer and musician living in the Hudson River Valley. In 2024, her poem, “Apology,” was published in Fantastic Imaginary Creatures: An Anthology of Contemporary Prose Poems and was nominated for a 2025 Pushcart Prize. She received her MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars.
1/12-2/14 / Submit to Sonnet Boom: Love Poems for Miami, a poetry contest brought to you by SWWIM, Elevate Miami, and O, Miami. Youth and adult categories. Cash prizes. Free to enter. See Submittable for complete guidelines.
02/12 / Poetry Reading and Conversation with visiting poet-in-residence Allison Blevins & local poets Carolina Hospital, Nicole Hospital-Medina, and Holly Iglesias / The BBar at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7-8:30 pm EST / Free
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So beautiful.
Gorgeous images and such depth!