Saturday book feature — It’s This — Laura Foley

On Sunday, I sing in a church choir, not believing
in God, but holding a space for something—

some might call it spirit, an opening,
a candle illuminating a cave.

On Sunday, I climb the hill behind our house,
as the long winter thaws, and my dogs dig in wet loam.

I wait for worries to relax their hold, for my mind
to become one with the clouds’ calm drifting,

the trilling of a stream rushing somewhere unseen.
We need, I think, to let ourselves soften around hurt,

before we melt, like spring snow, into fields—
so, I let Dad in, decades past his death,

find a few good memories, like stones just soft enough
for polishing—him filling the green glass vaporizer nightly,

so I wouldn’t get sick, in my childhood winters’ hot, dry air;
Dad donning an apron to cook for his skinny teen.

I breathe in the care and nourishment he offered then,
and I receive today, on an ordinary Sunday.

by Laura Foley from It’s This (Fernwood Press, 2023)

Cover art: Mareesa Fawver Moss

Best of the Net 2023 Nominations