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BIO: Holly Day has taught writing classes at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, since 2000. Her poetry has recently appeared in Tampa Review, SLAB, and Gargoyle, while her newest nonfiction book, Tattoos FAQ, is coming out from Backbeat Books at the end of 2017.
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The End of All Plans
I left the door unlocked and
just kept walking. I walked
until the heels of my pumps broke off
until the soles of my shoes wore through
until the soft skin of my bare feet
were as tough as boot leather.
Then I stopped.
I wonder at the stories children
must tell of me by now: the woman
who left her family behind
disappeared into the forest
never came home. Do they say
I haunt these woods, a specter
of a desiccated corpse, driven by guilt
wanting to come home but trapped
by my earthly, moldering remains?
Or am I something more:
a small, brown person, seen only
out of the corner of one’s eye, an elusive
but friendly forest witch, my former life
forgotten, grasping at peace
in the comfort of trees?
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In Memoriam
When I die
I want you to name some sort of food after me
a sandwich, a salad, even just a mixed drink. It can be
something that already has a regular name, like
peanut butter and jelly, Waldorf, gimlet.
Just add something different, like pomegranate seeds,
or a teeny tiny umbrella, something to set it apart
Make it look like something new.
I don’t need a fancy headstone
poems read or songs sung at my funeral.
Just make sure I find my way into someone’s lunch sack
or hastily scribbled onto an unsuspecting menu
casually dropped in conversations about
exciting local cuisine or
unacceptable changes made to home-cooked standards.
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