Advice to my Younger Self: \u00a0Winter<\/p>\n
\nOne night you will learn you are soon
\nto be abandoned, cast outdoors.<\/p>\n
This news may cause you some alarm.
\nSwallow it and savor those last hours.<\/p>\n
You\u2019ll have years to assign the anger, blame.
\nFor now hold them close. They\u2019ll keep you warm.<\/p>\n
The day will start with a long hike. You\u2019ll receive
\na crust of bread, an afternoon\u2019s low fire,<\/p>\n
and you will take a nap, a few hours to believe
\nyou are still loved, and maybe you misheard\u2014<\/p>\n
But night falls, and it\u2019s certain. You\u2019re forgotten,
\nleft to freeze, starve, be eaten alive by wolves.<\/p>\n
Allow yourself a moment\u2019s grief for all that\u2019s gone:
\nyour cat, your clothing, your warm bed.<\/p>\n
You may shed some tears,
\nbut don\u2019t cry loud or long.<\/p>\n
The cold will come; you\u2019ll need energy.
\nIt helps to have a plan before you leave.<\/p>\n
On your voyage out you can collect,
\nthen drop along the road<\/p>\n
the smoothest stones, the ones that reflect
\nmoonlight, make a lighted trail home.<\/p>\n
Or, as the story goes, you could crumble
\nup your crust of bread and leave a map<\/p>\n
sure to be consumed by birds.
\nIt hardly matters. Either way<\/p>\n
you\u2019re lost. Either way
\nyou\u2019ll wander into deeper woods.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Emily P\u00e9rez<\/a> is the author of the chapbook Backyard Migration Route<\/em><\/a> (Finishing Line Press). Raised in south Texas, she earned a BA from Stanford and an MFA at the University of Houston, where she served as a poetry editor for Gulf Coast <\/em>and taught with Writers in the Schools. Her poems have appeared in journals including Crab Orchard Review, Borderlands, The Laurel Review, DIAGRAM<\/a><\/em>,<\/a> \/nor<\/em>, and Nimrod. <\/em>She teaches English and Gender Studies in Seattle where she lives with her husband and sons.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Advice to my Younger Self: \u00a0Winter One night you will learn you are soon to be abandoned, cast outdoors. This news may cause you some alarm. Swallow it and savor those last hours. You\u2019ll have years to assign the … Continue reading