Emory Peak

white-throated swifts
pass so close I feel
their small bodies

displacing air before
I hear the sounds
of their flight, almost

electric in its hum
feathered little missiles
I imagine the strike

of their body, my legs
unsteady from the climb
would buckle on impact

send me spiraling down
the edge of the mountain
like loose gravel, purple

prickly pear & strawberry
pitaya punctuating the fall
and for once in what seems

a lifetime I do not want
to lose my footing
to surrender this life

and all its breaking
so unceremoniously
when I reach the peak

two young men pause
their descent, ask to pray
over me knowing nothing

of the past year, the past
decade, the past the past
their gentle hands rest

on my shoulders already
shaking with gratitude
at the ease of their mercy

Ronnie K. Stephens holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies, a Master of Arts in Creative Writing, a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction, and a PhD in English. His research centers the role of poetry in subverting antiethnic and anti-LGBTQ legislation affecting public education. He is the author of Universe in the Key of Matryoshka, They Rewrote Themselves Legendary, The Kaleidoscope Sisters, and Transgressive Poetics in the Twenty-First Classroom.