Belonging, by Melanie Figg

Shangri-La, by Yumiko Hirokawa (USA, b. Japan). 2015. Click image for artist site.

​Belonging

If there is a map to get here, it’s buried 
under layers of paint and skitter, a bouquet
of wary and doubt. A girlhood of scars married 
to skin. All my life I’ve been bracing for someday: 
gear up, set out, gaze locked on the horizon, lost 
in the rush of promise above the trees. A silver ring 
holds worlds of warm turquoise, woozy and star-crossed. 
I’ve been watching the signs. I’ve tried everything 
else. There’s a dumb moment when you spot birds
of prey and it’s some kind of magical sign. I rehearse 
the story of our romance through internet passwords--
an indigo oasis  in the metal grin of commerce.
A talisman to cleave to, a forecast to ignore.
Fires are messaging from the opposite shore.

​Melanie Figg

Melanie Figg is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. Her chapbook, Hurry, Love, was printed in standard and fine art editions with paper artist Doug Abbott (Fuori Editions). She has won many awards for her poetry including grants from the McKnight and Jerome Foundations and the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County. With an MFA in Poetry, her poems, essays and reviews have been published in dozens of literary journals including The Iowa Review, LIT, Colorado Review and others. She curates Literary Art Tours in DC galleries (aWashington Post Editor’s Pick), and teaches and coaches writers in community art centers and privately. www.melaniefigg.net