Ellen Lord

Self Portrait at 23

When the ship is leaving there is no point
  in holding on to the dock.
     —Lionel Corbett

I remember a lush and drowsy summer. Eerie yodel of a loon tingling my skin. How evening could stretch on forever. Beech trees silvered in moonlight—and that tender murmur of the river’s song. 

counting starlings

That was before the mean season … Now, I sit by a window in the ICU—breathe in sync with my brother’s respirator … fog lofts silent beyond a wind-ravaged pine.

a swirl and a whoosh

Now, so many nights are low-bottom dark … even dawn seems to smell of mold and piss. I’ve started to question that old river about its endless murmurations.

then gone… 

---

About the Author

Ellen Lord is a Northern Michigan native.  Her writing has appeared in Bear River Writers Review, Dunes Review, Walloon Writers Review,  U.P. Reader, HSA/Frogpond, and elsewhere. She is a behavioral health therapist, specializing in addiction and trauma.  She resides in Charlevoix County and Trout Creek, Michigan.  Her chapbook, Relative Sanity (2023), is available at ellenlordauthor.com. 

---