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Joannie Stangeland

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Lake Lure

Dried vines tangle the hill
like a wild woman’s hair,
rampant and unkempt,
cast a net over winter hillsides,
soften the light falling into hollows
that hold this cold.

We are dressed in Sunday best,
edges blurred by fatigue—
and a night in Asheville
spent without sleep, next door
to the party that did not end.
Now the sky opens a wide blue
and the lake laps just a little,
meets the sun part way.
We squint as we emerge.
The state route skirts the edge,
until we find the old hotel,
the room saved for us.
February settles in its corners
and on the sills,

but the dining hall is painted peach
so we anchor ourselves at a table,
tuck into plates of eggs and grits.
Other couples eat and say good-bye
while we watch the brightened world
beyond thin windows,
see people walk the shore,
dogs romp in the shallows.
We could stroll outside,
skip stones across the water.

There’s talk of snow on Wednesday.
We pay up with what we have left,
believing this place
as it might have been
in summer’s grandeur, children swimming
and hidden fish. Then we leave
the damp calm, follow the road east
for a peace not on our map.

Joannie Stangeland’s chapbook Weathered Steps was published by Rose Alley Press. A Steady Longing for Flight won the Floating Bridge Press Chapbook Award. Her poems have also appeared in print journals, online, and on the bus.

Page(s) 43

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