by Deborah L. Davitt
The words written by waves
are always unwritten again
washed away by the next rush of water
lifting the sand in a storm
that lashes at your ankles
sucks your feet deeper into the shore
the words written by storms
don’t last much longer
ephemeral runes wrought
by lightning’s jagged arcs
and pronounced in thunder’s voice
terrifying, sudden—and then gone
it shouldn’t surprise then,
that your words didn’t linger
traced in the air like a storm,
electric as they were
in their path from your lips
to my ear—now vanished, like you.
Deborah L. Davitt
Deborah L. Davitt was raised in Nevada, but currently lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and son. Her award-winning poetry and prose has appeared in over seventy journals, including F&SF, Asimov’s, Analog, and Lightspeed. For more about her work, including her Elgin-nominated poetry collections, The Gates of Never, Bounded by Eternity, and From Voyages Unreturning, see www.deborahldavitt.com. She also has a new poetry chapbook out in 2024 (Xenoforming), as well as a TTRPG and novel out this year: Mists & Memory and In Memory’s Shadow.
JC Alfier
JC Alfier’s (they/them) artistic directions are informed by photo-artists Toshiko Okanoue, Deborah Turbeville, Francesca Woodman, and especially Katrien De Blauwer. Their most recent poetry book, The Shadow Field, was published by Louisiana Literature Press (2020). Journal credits include The Brooklyn Review, Faultline, Notre Dame Review, Penn Review, River Styx, and Vassar Review.