Landing

You might not be coming home / this year / because of the coronavirus / Just last night the first victims in Michigan were announced / In the meantime you might be waylaid / I just left Indianapolis / where every avenue / was a different state / I walked from Vermont / to Oregon in ten minutes / In our hotel my colleague accidently dropped a slice / of pepperoni just an inch / from the door / I also left it there / because what else / was I to leave / but isn’t it / funny / The most exciting thing / to tell you / should not be the mild / winter we had / Does Australia have a coldness like / what we are draped in / here? / I don’t know / what kind of songs you like / but there is a song / where the speaker says their lover / is their home / I’m sure this is many / songs but I play it in the car / every time I drive home / thinking that I must remind / myself / and a place / that I am returning / Do places think? / When I say think / what I mean is / will a city gesticulate / its limbered arms / offer to me a collard / of its warmth / Perhaps the better word is / acknowledge / I try to acknowledge / what remains / put / Even your mother’s house / relocated like a kidney / to another body / is immovable / Years subscribed to new grass / the way no garden / can hold a single species / of flower / I want to say welcome / back / but I do not know / to what / What bushel of memory / can I barter with you / that might reclaim / the loss of roots / I do not know hospitality / except when I am sick / or just visiting / To call landing / from a plane / our respite of home / I’m sure you know this / Leaving is not like / the literal leaf / which withers as it travels / already dead / I think we manipulate / the wind we carry / and I can’t help but say / that leaving / means all homes are always / left / and so to welcome / you means / I’m sorry

Liam Strong (they/them) is a Pushcart Prize nominated queer writer and has earned their BA in Writing from University of Wisconsin-Superior. You can find their essays and poetry in Impossible Archetype, Rathalla Review, Glass Mountain, Lunch Ticket, Chiron Review, Panoply, Prairie Margins, and The 3288 Review. They live in Traverse City, Michigan.