Back to Issue Seventeen.

we are running north and south

BY CASEY PATRICK

 

 

 

amelia earhart makes a list of regrets

BY CASEY PATRICK

Not my era, my sex.
Not wanting the things I did.
Not hours of radio static and waiting,
the ocean’s yawn, this whole huge sky.
Noise in my ears. Not having it.
The wasted fireworks of flares
after the propellers’ song quit,
though they were nice at the time.
The emergency flotation device.
How I didn’t think of it first.
Hours on the ground after a takeoff went sour.
The time I thought a cloud was a stork and
the time it was—that shadow geography.
Not the cold coat of clouds.
Not a single beaten record.
The sky’s greed against my own, though.
That knowledge. That lack.

Casey Patrick is currently working on a manuscript about female voice and female figures in history. Poems from the manuscript have recently appeared or are forthcoming in PleaidesRHINOPassages NorthJukedThe Journal, and others. She has an MFA from Eastern Washington University and is a recipient of the James Merrill Fellowship from Vermont Studio Center and the 20142015 Writers House Residency from Hub City Writers Project. She can be found online at www.casey-patrick.com and on Twitter @everythingfitz.

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