nature – Detroit Lit Mag

Petoskey Stone / Mitch VanAcker

Published on January 4, 2023December 13, 2022 by Detroit Lit MagLeave a comment

PETOSKEY STONE

On the shores of North Point
a few arias of crosswind

hatch coils on the mute surf.
Last winter’s undertow

wrenched a crop
from the lake’s full-voiced gullet.

I lift from the clear jelly
a pale gray bud

and appraise the score
left in its frozen vessels:

that sometime verse of seaflesh,
a passacaglia of ancient

lips, ears, and genitals,
slowed by stone and floe

to the oceanic rhythm—
a tone we are deaf to.

Mitch VanAcker is a writer based in Detroit. His work examines “nature” and “the self”—their seeming disharmonies and the structures we build to reconcile them. He enjoys bonfires, kayaking, and impromptu visits to strange cities.

What is Left / Barry Casey

Published on December 21, 2022December 13, 2022 by Detroit Lit MagLeave a comment

WHAT IS LEFT

Take them away, the redwoods with
the tiny blue flowers at their feet. Take them
away before we trample them at last.

The rivers: release them from their vows.
Let them know in secret they don’t owe us
anything. They will find their own way.

And the forests, loyal to the end. They know
how to march, though it fills them with fear.
Perhaps this will be enough to get them moving.

The air, the wind, best when unseen. Let it
pass softly on its way, where the million
weights it carries can finally be dropped.

Leave us the stars, cold, remote, ancient of days.
They look down upon us silently, unafraid.
They know we cannot touch them.

Barry Casey has published in Adventist Society for the Arts, Brevity, Faculty Focus, Lighthouse Weekly, Mountain Views, Patheos, Spectrum Magazine, The Dewdrop, and The Purpled Nail. His collection of essays, Wandering, Not Lost: Essays on Faith, Doubt, and Mystery, was published by Wipf and Stock in November 2019. He writes from Burtonsville, Maryland.