Joshua Gray’s most recent poem to appear here was “Isolation” (June 2016)

Homer
With thanks to Dawn Leas and BIPF
By Joshua Gray

Before the salmon came,
we spent the weekend
at a small rented cabin
off the coast of Alaska.

Do not stand on the wet sand,
warned the landlady,
it will engulf you.

But we didn’t listen.
We also didn’t die.

Bald eagles flew above us.
Beluga whales, white as sea foam, swam nearby.

Mosquitoes swarmed exposed skin.

Just as we drove away,
a new weekend of no electricity, no plumbing,
we stopped.

A bull moose stood on the road,
staring at the car before him,
the people inside.

We stared back.

And then he vanished,
like our weekend getaway
from indifference.