Dream Bounding North by Meghan Elizabeth Kelley

I’m on a train
that bolts only

northbound,
all sleek windows

and no escape. Blurs
of what I abandoned

dissolve as I arrow through
the alpine

north. I’m white-knuckled,
lockset, roped in by the lure

of completion.
I go

the way a buck bounds
kicking memory

behind him as he chases
the doe. When the tracks

crumble, I belly-crawl
into the trees,

forage for any glimpses
of the past my deer mouth

can catch, devour every
berry, hard

and shriveled,
each one a familiar

snapshot, a bitter bite
I mistook for sweetness

when I didn’t know
I could wake up.



Meghan Elizabeth Kelley is a poet and writer in Jenkintown, PA. Her work has appeared in District Lines, For Women Who Roar, Trouvaille Review, and The Inflectionist Review, among other places. She is also a yoga nidra and meditation facilitator, which helps shape her creative process.