Hilary Sallick

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uncertain times

I woke unsure
where I was   what window
was beside me   what trees
outside the window   and who else
was awake in the house or
sleeping on the other side
of the bed —  no the quilt thrown back
was not my sister breathing softly;
and neither my mother
nor my father
was moving about
upstairs or down
in the rooms of this house
   My mind is adrift
still    though I sit here now
with coffee   and have seen you
who made the coffee   and told me
you lay awake most
of the night

Hilary Sallick is the author of Love is a Shore (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2023), a finalist for the Massachusetts Book Award; and Asking the Form (Cervena Barva Press, 2020). Her poems appear or are forthcoming in SoFloPoJo; Pensive; iamb: poetry seen and heard; Thimble; Action, Spectacle; Halfway Down the Stairs; Permafrost; Potomac Review; Notre Dame Review; and elsewhere. A teacher with a longtime focus on adult literacy, she lives in Somerville, MA. (www.hilarysallick.com)