What This Life Is by Lea Galanter | ISSUE TWENTY FOUR: Systemly Real

What This Life Is

Lea Galanter

Finding photographs
trapped in an upstairs room
under a floorboard in the church
where smoky dust in the stairwell
whirls like snow

Freaks have a way of finding each other
trade family stories over a cup of black tea
we were in the choir together
shared our first smoke in the bell tower
told the truth to shame the devil

Sometimes they come back
thinking they can make it right
but not this time
things change and
people tend to misplace things

I tried to find the child
Was she not just here
holding flowers in a basket?
I’m still me
but I no longer know what that looks like

I’m not looking for help
or a free ride on the wind
it’s just the way it is
all I can do is go with my gut

Lea Galanter is a Seattle-area editor and writer with a background in history and theater. After writing plays for many years, she stumbled into the world of poetry and has never looked back. Her poetry has been published by Panoply, LitFuse, and in various anthologies. She now ventures regularly into the spaces between words seeking the secret messages.

ISSUE TWENTY FOUR: Systemly Real | next poem →