“I can’t control the wind but I can adjust the sail” –Ricky Skaggs Poor visibility on the slopes. We may want to descend while we can, if the weather holds and we are still ourselves, or nearly the several someones we started out as, who haven’t changed a bit. Well, a little bit. A bit more than we planned. All good things come to an end— even shrimp-patterned bikinis. The fabric was a little loose around the navel, gladsome but regrettable. A meal made of marker fluid, these bikinis will not sell. Still, we hope never to die, and soon. The evening circles the starlight’s plow. We can’t control the wind or adjust the sail. Where we are blowing, we cannot tell. I’m feeling better yet can’t say how. Everything’s on sale. Call now.
Caley O’Dwyer’s poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, Prairie Schooner, Cream City Review, Zocalo Public Square and other venues. He is a three-time nominee for the Pushcart Prize and has received the Academy of American Poets University Prize, as well as a Helene Wurlitzer grant for poetry. A painter (caleyodwyerart.com or https://www.instagram.com/caleyodwyer_art/) and psychotherapist (caleymft.com) in private practice, Caley has taught writing for twenty-five years in southern California universities, including UC Irvine, USC, and Antioch University Los Angeles. His first book, FULL NOVA, was published by Orchises Press in 2001. Other examples of his work can be found at caleyodwyer.com.
Featured Photo by Mathieu Stern on Unsplash
Sentience Literary Journal 