When We Meet Again
by Siarra RIEHL
Claire Marsh, Remains, acrylic, ink, hand-cut photographs, moss, artificial leaves, and gemstones on wood canvas, 12 x 16 inch, 2023. Courtesy of the artist.
WHEN WE MEET AGAIN
Siarra RIEHL | FEB 2023 | Issue 21
Deep in the mossy centre of my body blooms a flower. The red clover—its more than one hundred petals reaching from its centre—secures like sugar maple sap to my lungs, heart, stomach. Through my veins a Morgan horse, Figure, races and finds the spots where petal meets body. He licks and drinks from the sweetness there, strengthening the connection between nature and self.
I walk to the bridge positioned over the North Branch of the Winooski River. I stand there, red clover, sugar maple, and Morgan horse keeping me upright. I watch as the river flows beneath the space where my feet meet ground and lend my salted tears to its path.
No one can take the spirit of home out of me.
Up the hill now, toward those sacred structures that housed me for two years. House me still. What of myself will I find there? What missing piece? What forgotten past?
When I arrive, I lie on a blanket of green grass and open my body to the earth. Figure spills out of me with messy urgency. Red clover roots from the sappy sweet wounds he leaves behind.
I am bound to this place.
I hear laughter, feel the thick, wet heat of the Vermont air, and exhale only gratitude for what I’ve known here. I hear the many voices of those I’ve loved calling my name from across the vast green I now embody. From my mouth, only flowers and syrup escape.
With what’s left of my hands, I dig a little deeper into the grass.
I remember then one of the many pearls of wisdom bestowed upon me in this place: imagination. That breathing being who lives in the attic of the mind. A quiet bell rings out and I offer all that is left of me to that sound. Even if I leave for good, the memory of this sweetness will remain.
Siarra Riehl (she/her) lives and creates on Treaty Six land in so-called Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, with her wife and two cats. A transdisciplinary writer, performer, and teacher, she holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Siarra’s fiction received an honourable mention in AWP’s 2020 Intro Journals Project, and her work has appeared in Under the Gum Tree, Landing Zone, On the Run, and elsewhere. Embodiment, magic, and queerness are her writing practice's heart.
Claire Marsh (she/her) is a library assistant living in Treaty 6 with her wife and two cats. She enjoys 1950s lesbian pulp fiction and a cold pint of beer. Sometimes she makes art.