Alexis Rotella

Mercury Retrograde

The pilot informs we’re about to make an emergency landing. Engine
trouble, those dreaded words.

                      with me I feel the sister never born

It takes hours to fix the engine. In the air again less than twenty
minutes and we’re told we’re returning back to the airport. A warning
light.

                                     high priestess blue the sky

A passenger asks the hostess, are we going to die? I have a wife and two kids.

How would I know? I’m not the pilot.

What can any of us do but take deep breaths and pray while staring at
our snow-capped knuckles.

                                    Gucci watch it needs a new battery

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About the Author

New to Greensboro, NC, Alexis Rotella has been writing Japanese poetry forms in English since the late 1970s. Her most recent books, Scratches on the Moon (haibun) and the anthology Unsealing Our Secrets (MeToo Stories) earned Touchstone book awards. Her latest anthology, Grandmother’s Pearls, is available on Amazon/Kindle, as are a number of her books.